the members of his ward subscribe to the Improvement Era (This was in an earlier era). The subscription cost was minimal. The bishop responded (correctly I believe) that to some students it was not minimal. Some members of his ward would not spend any money dating because they didn't have it. Some members of his ward would not spend an extra $ amount on anything because they did not have extra for anything. They were selling plasma so they could afford to attend BYU.
There was a time while I was a student that I had no money and went 5 days without eating, one semester I relied on library copy of text books because I did not have the money to buy text books that semester. (My grades reflected the lack of text books) Do you really think it is justified to ask students in that situation to spend extra money that they don't have.