The Student Service Finance Committee voted to endorse Chair Matt Manes' proposed Campus Services Fund Thursday.
The CSF, part of Manes' proposed strategic budget plan, would empower the Associated Students of Madison to ensure funding for services they deem ""essential"" to the student body.
SSFC representative Aliyya Terry critiqued the proposal in open forum, offering several amendments to Manes' original proposal.
Terry's amendments included potential limits on the CSF, such as a cap on the total number of services the CSF could fund at a given time.
Terry also said ASM members should be required to collect a certain number of student signatures before proposing a CSF service.
According to Manes' original proposal, any ASM member could propose a service for the CSF, while non-members would be required to first gather 30 student signatures before proposing.
Terry suggested ASM members meet the 30-signature requirement as a way to ""actively engage"" the student body.
""It's a way of opening the door to get students involved in the process,"" Terry said.
However, other council members disagreed.
SSFC Secretary Jason Smathers said the proposed amendments would ""limit the [the CSF] from the outset.""
Regarding the 30-signature suggestion, Smathers said the mechanism for student input already existed in electing members of ASM.
""I just don't see what the problem is,"" Smathers said.
Following the CSF's passage, Manes said he would present his proposal, along with a question-and-answer session, to ASM Nov. 3, before moving on to debate the following week.
The meeting ended with the council going into closed session for budget training.
The SSFC's two newest members, Rae Lymer and Riaan Roux, completed budget training along with the rest of the council.
They will be officially sworn in at the SSFC's next meeting Tuesday as the council begins its new budget season.
