University of Maine System Chancellor James Page, Maine Community College System President John Fitzsimmons and Maine Maritime Academy President William Brennan addressed a joint session of the Maine Legislature on Thursday.

Each institution faces its own stark challenges, with a declining pool of high school graduates to draw from, aging infrastructure and a shortage of state funding and federal funding to pump into improvements.

Fitzsimmons said that Maine’s community college system will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its switch from technical colleges to community colleges this fall.

“In those 10 years, our enrollment has increased by more than 80 percent,” Fitzsimmons said.

Over the past four years, enrollment increased more than 25 percent, while state appropriations increased by a little more than 2 percent, making keeping up with the growth a challenge, he said.

“The hallmark of our 57-year history has been our willingness to adapt to our workforce needs in an ever-changing economy without ever losing sight of the need to provide high-quality education at an affordable price,” Fitzsimmons said.

He stressed the need to make college degrees attainable and affordable for Mainers.

“College used to be for the few,” Fitzsimmons said. “It is now a must for the many.”

Page stressed the steps the University of Maine System has taken to mitigate the fiscal, demographic and infrastructure challenges it has faced since he became chancellor a year ago.

“Public higher education must be affordable, accessible, top-quality, and it must be relevant,” Page said. “A relevant education prepares people to be engaged citizens as well as productive employees.”

The system attempted to tackle the “affordable” aspect in January 2012, freezing in-state tuition for the first time in 25 years.

Page cited UMaine’s launch of Project>Login, an attempt by the system to attract more computer science and information technology students, as an example of how the university would attempt to shuffle students into in-demand careers. Such programs will give employers the workers they need and help move Maine’s economy forward, he said.

“With your help, the University of Maine System will be the most responsive public university system in the country,” Page told legislators.

Brennan said that the most important message he could convey to legislators is that “[Maine Maritime Academy is] doing great. We have record applications, our job placement is above 90 percent in the first six months after graduation, and we’re providing amazing careers for young women and men in this state.”

While that job placement statistic is the “envy of most other institutions,” the academy still faces challenges.

“We’re at a critical crossroads,” Brennan said. “We’re facing pressure to grow in difficult economic times.”

The academy has not added a classroom building in 30 years, he said, noting that his institution needed up-to-date facilities to match its students’ needs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Instead of new construction, MMA has been retrofitting 1860s-era buildings to modern needs.

“We have arrived at the point of diminishing returns,” Brennan said. “These buildings can no longer accommodate the ever increasing technological advances our form of instruction requires.”

University of Maine System presidents and the board of trustees also met with Gov. Paul LePage on Thursday morning, according to Jake Ward, vice president of innovation and economic development at UMaine. They discussed the university’s progress and the exchange that allowed the university to hold tuition stead in return for flat funding from the state.