! Missing \endcsname inserted.
 <to be read again>
                    \hskip
 ...
 l.1 \contentsline\hskip
                        1\ts \relax  {chapter}{\numberline\hskip 1\ts \relax...

If you get an error like this, or any error while latex'ing the thesis
files when you're just beginning with your thesis, make sure that you're
not trying to \include files that don't exist.  If you use `all' and the
main.tex file tries to include files that don't exist, then it will mess
up with that error, and corrupt the .aux files.  To fix this,

a) comment out the \include lines that correspond to files that you
haven't created files for yet (by changing them from

	\include{chap1}
to
	%\include{chap1}

or

b) Type

	touch filename.tex

for all the files that you include.  `touch' will create the files if
they don't exist.
 
Then, delete all the bonus extra files

	delete *.aux *.toc *.lof *.lot

And try it again.  It should work.