The board is not bending the rules. The board sets the rules. They can decide whether to decide on each visa reimbursement individually or to set a policy or to ask the travel committee to set a policy. They can also as a group decide on any exceptions.It's perfectly reasonable for them to decide on one visa reimbursement individually before there is a policy if for some reason they are not ready to decide on the policy. Moving forward, regardless of the policy, there might be good reasons to handle cases as exceptions.