O Humanities, Where Art Thou?

Received the Fall 2006 U of C alumni magazine today and against my better judgement I read it, including a feature about "40 Students to Watch" whose only redeeming quality was that it was shot by former Gauntlet photog extraordinaire, Aaron Whitfield. The students were a mix of undergrads, grad students, and professional students. As I flipped through, I noticed that the Faculties of Law and Medicine were well represented, as were the faculties of Science, Education, Nursing, Social Work, Communications and Culture, and ... holy missing faculty, Batman! Where's Humanities?

Indeed, it looks like U (the magazine) has lost its faculties—I mean, a faculty. When even Fine Arts gets three (three!) students, it really stings when the only Humanities representation lies in an undergrad student doing a joint degree in English and Computer Science (you know, that last bastion of humanist values). Was the Dean of Humanities out of town the day they asked him for the names of some students to watch? The feature proports to "showcase the amazing breadth of today's student population." How can it do that when it barely includes a student from a significant faculty?

This really bugs me. Humanities doesn't get much respect on the best of days, but you'd think an alumni magazine would be more sensitive to showcasing all aspects of a university's offerings. Unless, of course, they think that Humanities grads aren't paid enough to make significant financial contributions to the university. In which case, this feature isn't going to help.