The Student Senate Friday narrowly approved a $400 club grant for the Critical Thinking Club that asked for a reimbursement.

The grant was approved 5-4 with Krystle Farmer, Joshua Oken, Yeihoon Choi, and Matthew Esguerra against the motion to approve, which was made by David Panbehchi.

Alex Madajian, founder and president of the Critical Thinking Club, presented the grant on behalf of the club saying that the club’s advisor, Mark McIntire, had spent a lot of his own money on things for the club. He said the money went toward a poster, advertisement and a banner, and asked that the money, should they receive it, be used as reimbursement to McIntire, calling the advisor “financially unstable” due to an expensive medical procedure McIntire expects to pay for in the near future.

“Being that he’s contributed so much we’d like to dedicate as much of this as we can to him,” Madajian said. “If there’s any events that we can do, we will spend the money on that but primarily though we’d be reimbursing personal contributions to our club advisor that never really were fulfilled.”

After Student Trustee David Panbehchi asked if Madajian would be able to provide receipts for the purchases made by the club, to which Madajian said that it would be “doubtful,” Madajian said the club members voted to request these funds without McIntire’s knowledge so that it could be a surprise for their advisor.  

President Joshua Villanueva asked if the funds could be used instead to buy a new poster and banner for the club after Madajian said that over spring break the two had been lost, to which Manajian replied that because the semester is almost over it’s “a little late in the game” but he’s “not gonna say no to free money.”

Villanueva said that he believes the biggest concern is how the funds were itemized. While the grant proposal doesn’t technically break any laws, the itemized list required on the grant wasn’t filled out out to the extent where it showed exactly how much each of the items would cost.

“I think it’s fair that we approve this grant for how it’s itemized and if Mark is able to provide the receipts I think it’s fair that he gets reimbursed for his purchases” said Nick Hofstatter, commissioner of sustainability. “If he can’t provide receipts I think it’s only fair that you use your club grant for what it’s itemized as.”

Joshua Oken, vice president of internal affairs, argued against approving the grant. He said that approving the grant would set a precedent for clubs to hold an event and the money would be automatically refunded.

“I think the reason that we have this process of turning in a grant, proposing the money, then hosting events is for a reason,” Oken said. “It helps students prepare, rather than hosting an event then expecting ASG to refund it.

“I think it’ll be in the betterment of clubs to get the money first and spend it cause I think that’s just more practical and economically smart.”