Veteran tertiary student organiser and campaigner Mark Baxter has taken issue with the high proportion of business discussed in private at the two meetings earlier this month.
Mr Baxter, who is a university graduate and a life member of the Otago University Students Association, said some matters clearly needed to be discussed privately, including where personal confidentiality was involved.
However, he was sceptical about whether discussing so much in private at the committees, which report to the University Council, was in keeping with the spirit of the Official Information Act.
The Act aims to "make official information more freely available", with such information being provided "unless there is good reason for withholding it".
University authorities said there was "good reason" for excluding the public under the Official Information Act and related legislation.
If confirmation of minutes and motions to exclude the public were set to one side, only two substantial agenda items were discussed publicly at the meetings, with 12 other matters considered privately.
The public section of the recent finance and budget meeting was over in less than five minutes.
A document was tabled setting out the terms of reference, constitution and membership of the committee, and minutes of the previous meeting were confirmed.
The public was then excluded in order to discuss the remaining four items, which included draft management accounts, and a draft statement of service performance.
Reports on "capital works progress" had been discussed at an earlier meeting of the capital development committee.
This was one of three "open" agenda items at that meeting, with the ensuing eight items considered in private.
Approached for comment, Jan Flood, who is secretary to the University Council and is also the university registrar, said there were good reasons for holding parts of the meetings in private.
"Reasons include commercial confidentiality, personal privacy, legal professional privilege and not to prejudice or disadvantage negotiations.
"It's not true that more meetings at the university are being held in private than in the past," Ms Flood said.
