A lawyer for the Coloradoan and two other media organizations suing CSU over alleged open-meeting violations has accused university officials of deliberately trying to run up the legal costs of the suit - costs taxpayers will have to pay if the media organizations win.

The media organizations are suing Colorado State University over what they argue are a series of violations of the Colorado Open Meetings Law, which generally requires public business to be conducted in public rather than in secret "executive sessions."

CSU's Board of Governors on May 5 met behind closed doors for a vaguely described meeting in which the board interviewed fellow member Joe Blake for the system chancellor position, then decided to make him the sole finalist for the job before coming out in public to re-take the same vote without discussion.