CASTINE – Enrollment at Maine Maritime Academy is expected to top 800 students when classes start this fall.

Based on current enrollment figures of new, returning and transfer students, academy officials anticipate there will be 827 enrolled at the academy this year. The enrollment figure meets the administration’s goal of 800 students, but also raises several challenges for the state’s maritime school.

One of those challenges, according to MMA President Leonard Tyler, will be to maintain those numbers in the face of declining demographics in Maine.

“We’re going to face some declining numbers in the next 12 years in the number of high school students,” Tyler told trustees last week. “It will take some work to maintain it.”

Part of the increase in enrollment has been from increased interest from out-of-state students. Tyler said the admissions office has been using the academy Web site to attract prospective students from all over the United States.

“The Web page has opened up some new markets to us,” he said.

The academy also will concentrate on attracting more students from Puerto Rico as a way to boost diversity at the academy. About 560 high school students visited the academy’s ship when it was docked in San Juan during the annual training cruise earlier this summer and recruiters will visit Puerto Rico during the coming year.

In addition, the board of trustees on Friday agreed to give students from Puerto Rico a break on tuition costs. The board voted to offer the equivalent of in-state tuition beginning in 2005 to Puerto Rican students in the academy’s U.S. Coast Guard license programs and the equivalent of the regional tuition rate for nonlicense students from the island.

The increased enrollment raises some challenges for the academy in terms of faculty and housing. Richard Grosh, chairman of the trustee’s academic affairs committee, reported that the enrollment was pushing the limit in terms of having sufficient faculty members to provide existing programs.

“Our maximum enrollment is 868, so we can do it,” he said

Officials will be monitoring the demands on the faculty and the student-faculty ratio during the coming year.

The influx of students is also putting pressure on student housing, which has been a growing problem in recent years. With 170 upperclassmen already living off campus, the large enrollment this year will force the academy to make some different housing arrangements. Instead of housing one freshman regimental class on board the State of Maine ship, the academy plans to house two.

On Friday, trustees voted to jump-start an effort to build a 68-bed student apartment complex off Pleasant Street. The plan originally raised some concerns with town officials concerned about the impact such a project would have on the town’s infrastructure, particularly, the sewer and water systems.

Board Chairman William Haggett stressed that although the board considered the increased housing an essential component for the future, the academy will work with local and state authorities during the planning process. Academy officials already have met once with town leaders and plan additional meetings as plans progress.