As a professor of political science at the University of Utah for 30 years, I have assigned The Salt Lake Tribune to students in my American national government course. I have done so in the expectation that it was a convenient mechanism for exposing students to topics of interest in government and politics at the local, state, national and international levels. I also hoped that my students would continue using the newspaper to keep reasonably informed about what their governments are doing.

My students and I have noticed the gradual deterioration of the quality of the paper to the point where real valuable news that could ensure an informed citizenry is trivialized. The devotion of the Feb. 11 front page to Jerry Sloan's departure as Jazz coach was the last straw. I now plan to use a different news source.

What would make me change my mind? Organize Section A so that the most relevant political and governmental events are introduced on the first pages with more trivial events covered on later pages. Reduce the size of pictures. Locate other state and local events and human interest stories in Section B. Confine sports to the Sports Section.

Laurie Holland

Salt Lake City