We believe that Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) should not have been so quick to reject a proposal that would give students free New York Times subscriptions.

ASI is meant to represent the entire student body at Fresno State. Their vote showed that they did not take the time or consideration to hear what students would think of this subscription. For them, it was about money, not how it could actually benefit students.

That being said, we think that the proposal should have been tabled until there was more evidence to suggest that a majority of Fresno State students would use and benefit from the subscription.

At the Feb. 18 ASI senate meeting, Senator for the College of Arts and Humanities Sarah Sevy said that she conducted an unofficial survey with about 60 students who all said they would be interested in a free New York Times subscription.

Sevy told The Collegian that she spoke to students from different majors, but that the survey was “super unofficial and only for the purpose of gauging interest.”

Now, 60 students out of a 24,000 student body is a huge sampling error. However, ASI should have let Sevy conduct an actual survey with more students instead of just voting to reject the proposal overall.

Cody Jarvis, the senator of research and innovations, motioned to table the vote, but there was another motion to vote on the proposal, which ended up passing.

Jarvis wrote in a letter to the editor submission to The Collegian and claimed that The Collegian’s headline, “ASI rejects proposal for free student New York Times subscription,” was misleading because the subscription wouldn’t necessarily be “free” because it comes out of student fees.

We understand that if this proposal were to pass, it would have cost ASI around $16,000, which is a hefty price tag. However, it would have cost only 67 cents per student, which is a great deal considering that people pay $4 to $30 every four weeks for a subscription, totaling over $200 per year.

There are many other services the university provides to students that students refer to as “free,” such as the Student Recreation Center, Adobe Creative Cloud and some services from the Student Health and Counseling Center.

Overall, we hoped for more thought of the benefits of having free New York Times subscriptions before voting no. If ASI wants to represent the student body, it should consider their opinions.