u/seh256

Not sure if this is the right place for this, but I’m hoping for some guidance. I (PhD student in the US) recently traveled to a conference with a group of labmates, and we stayed in the host university’s dorms. The dorm rooms were quite cold, and they only provided us with one very thin blanket each (similar to the ones you might get on an airplane). We asked the front desk for extras and they said they didn’t have any. After the first night of absolutely freezing, I bought some cheap blankets from Walmart for me and some of my labmates. I tried to expense them when I got back from the conference, but our business office said that “falls into the category of clothing and toiletries” and so they will not reimburse it. I want to send back an email pushing back/asking what I should have done differently, but my advisor says that I it won’t make a difference and I shouldn’t tick people off. I spent $80 which isn’t a crazy amount of money, but it’s also not nothing for me. Im also kind of shocked at the response from the business office. What do you think I should do? Thanks in advance for any advice!