FRANKFORT — If it weren’t for a full scholarship, Morehead State University student Jocelyn Gross, 20, of Frenchburg says she’d probably be working in the Nestle’s factory where hot pockets are packaged.

She’s the first in her family of four to attend college and if her scholarship is reduced, she said she’ll be able to make it through her final year. Menifee County, where Frenchburg, is located has the highest unemployment rate in the state – 21 percent. She wants to go back there – or someplace like it – and help improve the quality of life so others will have better opportunities.

“But if it happened when I was a freshman, I would probably have had to find a full-time job,” said Gross, a third-year geography and history major. She’s hopeful that any scholarship reductions caused by potential state budget cuts won’t affect those who already have scholarships. But she’s concerned about those – especially those like her from rural eastern Kentucky – who might not be able to attend college after high school.

The president of her university worries about it, too. Dr. Wayne Andrews told a house budget subcommittee Thursday that cuts in funding for higher education of double-digit proportions can’t help but affect financial aid Morehead provides its students, roughly 90 percent of whom receive some form of financial aid through the federal or state governments or from Morehead itself.

The General Assembly is trying to fill a $1 billion or larger hole as they craft a two-year budget without new revenue and universities and other state agencies are bracing for funding cuts. University presidents said Thursday significant cuts can’t be absorbed without pain to those they serve.

Morehead devotes $13 million of its general fund budget to student aid, above and beyond what the state and federal governments provide. Andrews said double-digit funding reductions from the General Assembly will force some reduction of that money.

His counterpart at Eastern Kentucky University, Dr. Doug Whitlock, said financial need is often a factor in graduation rates. He told the committee that if the six-year graduation rate often jumps noticeably in the seventh or eighth year, attributing that to so many students “stopping and starting” because of costs.

“It’s primarily a function of dropping out to keep loan obligations lower,” Whitlock said. EKU has expanded its own financial aid from 3 percent of its budget in fiscal year 2000 to 10 percent in fiscal year 2010.

Whitlock, Andrews, and Dr. James Votruba, president of Northern Kentucky University, all appeared before the committee, explaining steps taken by the university to become more efficient and to meet the goals of the higher education reform passed in 1997. They talked about reducing the number of degree programs, eliminating positions, and shifting resources.

They talked about regional outreach which has reduced the need for remediation for entering students, attracted students from families who believed college was out of reach financially or out of their league academically, and each said several times their universities are the “economic engines” of their regions.

But such regional efforts and programs to assist K-12 teachers prepare students for college work can’t be protected from significant cuts on top of the reductions the universities have endured over the past several years, all three presidents said.

Whitlock said 75 percent to 80 percent of Eastern’s budget is devoted to personnel and cuts will mean reductions which impacts the regional economy. Andrews said flat salaries for teachers – even those whose positions are retained – will cost the university as well.

“We’re going to lose some of our best faculty members,” Andrews said, “because our best people have opportunities” elsewhere.

Gross, the MSU junior, said cutting education is in the long run short sighted.

“Kentucky is so focused on ‘moving forward,’ ” Gross said, “but if they continue to cut higher education, they’ll be taking big steps backward.”

RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.