AUGUSTA -- Flat funding from the state this year for Maine's seven public universities, coupled with rising personnel and energy costs, made raising tuition inevitable, University of Maine at Augusta President Allyson Hughes Handley said Tuesday.

"The tuition increase is, by and large, just to sustain the institution," Handley said during a meeting with the Kennebec Journal editorial board Tuesday, the day after the university system's trustees voted to raise tuition at the seven campuses by an average of 10.1 percent for the coming academic year.

Full-time students at UMA will see their bills rise by $480 -- or 9.2 percent -- to $5,700 for the 2008-09 academic year.

"It was regrettably necessary in tight financial times," Handley said.

The university must fund staff members' negotiated salary increases and rising heating oil and utilities costs, she said.

The campus president, who took over in March from the retiring Richard Randall, said she hoped the college would not lose students as a result of higher costs.

UMA might be able to avoid enrollment drops "if we can get the word out sufficiently that (students) need to come talk to their adviser or financial aid administrator" if they have trouble paying tuition, she said. Handley has said UMA will boost its financial aid resources by 9.2 percent.

During the hourlong meeting, Handley also spoke about UMA's efforts to develop a fundraising infrastructure on a campus that has never had one.

"We'll really have to create this out of nothing," Handley said, noting the college could not afford to set aside funds for developing a fundraising plan or staffing a development office.

Joyce Blanchard, Handley's executive assistant, is charged with developing an advancement plan the university expects to roll out by the end of the summer, Handley said.

In the fall, UMA plans to ask staff members for contributions. And the college already requested that graduating students contribute $50 over five years. That effort has yielded "letters back" and "some checks," she said.

"You want a sustained giving pattern," Handley said. "We need to have the investment and commitment of our internal stakeholders."

Well-heeled philanthropists, the UMA president said, are more likely to open their wallets for an organization whose staff members have contributed.

Handley said it might be difficult to convince philanthropists to support scholarship funds for working-adult students.

"But then, when you hear some of the stories, they're very compelling stories of aspiration, of delayed opportunity," she said.

But fundraising efforts will not pay off soon enough to offset tuition increases, Handley said.

"There is incredible opportunity," she said, "but that might not be by September."

Handley also said Tuesday she would be "excited" to collaborate with Augusta officials as they attempt to reinvigorate the city's downtown. Collaboration between the city and the university would allow the city access to funding currently available only to the university.

"I think there's great potential to leverage dollars," she said.

Mayor Roger Katz has said he would like to attract UMA students to live in downtown Augusta.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com