From our Missed It the First Time desk:

A few letters to the editor of the Boston Globe about its Sept. 5th front-page piece essentially declaring UMass Amherst a second-class university.

Letter #1, from UMass Amherst chancellor Robert Holub, on Sept. 9th:

I WRITE in response to your front-page Sept. 5 article “At UMass, top rung remains out of reach: Hampered by years of cuts, Amherst campus struggles to draw ranking Bay State students.’’ Your readers deserve what I believe is the real story, which is that University of Massachusetts Amherst is the finest public university in New England.

Figures omitted from the article tell an impressive story about the strengths of UMass Amherst:

Enrollment of Massachusetts residents increased by nearly 1,500 between 2004 and 2009, our applications increased 54 percent between 2005 and 2010, and we just enrolled the largest freshman class in school history.

And etc.

Letter #2, from Chairwoman of the Amherst Select Board Stephanie O’Keeffe, on Sept. 12th:

UMass has taken many effective steps to address its so-called party school reputation, and the Town of Amherst is proud to partner in these efforts. While there is still more work to do, the “Zoo Mass’’ days are behind us, and UMass officials and students deserve great credit for that.

Further, there is a bigger story to be told about the successes of this student body: their outstanding academic work and their extraordinary civic engagement. Maybe articles on subjects such as nursing students providing weekly care at housing for the elderly and disabled, or hundreds of fraternity and sorority members going door-to-door to raise money for human service agencies, just don’t sell papers.

Ouch.

Letter #3, from UMass alum Heidi Biehl, also on Sept 12th (bunch of letters in last Sunday’s Globe Ideas section):

WHAT A slap in the face to read the front-page headlines in last Sunday’s Globe — “At UMass, top rung remains out of reach: Hampered by years of cuts, Amherst campus struggles to draw ranking Bay State students’’ — last Sunday, of all days. That was the day that thousands of students moved in to their dorms at UMass Amherst, most of them eager to learn and experience college life.

Looks like it’s the Boston Globe getting slapped in the face now.