POMONA - On a recent day at Cal Poly Pomona, John Lloyd lectured to his U.S. history class about access to opportunities in a capitalistic society where there are political struggles when providing goods and services.

While it may sound like a lot of theory, professors and students alike will experience this lesson firsthand as the California State University system braces for $239.6 million in reductions.

Jobs are on the line, and when jobs are cut, class sizes increase, or the number of classes is limited. Access is limited twofold since there are now caps on new freshman enrollment in the fall.

"I'm very worried about what's going to happen," said Elizabeth Hoffman, a Cal State Long Beach English professor and union representative for lecturers. "So much depends on what happens with the budget, but it's hard to imagine it's not going to affect instruction."

Lecturers, who make up about 60 percent of CSU's faculty, do not have permanent contracts and can easily lose their jobs when enrollment dips or budgets shrink, said Hoffman, who is a statewide officer for the California Faculty Association.

There are about 11,200 lecturers in the CSU, and about 400 teach at Cal Poly Pomona.

"They are a pretty significant part of the work force," said Sam Strafaci, the CSU associate vice chancellor for human resources.

Significant, yes. Protected, they will say, hardly.

Lecturers, who are often called part-timers even though many work full time, are the first instructors to lose their jobs when budget cuts become severe enough.

"I feel a great deal of sympathy for the lecturers," said Barbara Hacker, the interim associate vice president for faculty affairs at Cal Poly Pomona. "But when we're trying to balance the budget, there are limitations on what we can do."

As Cal Poly Pomona prepares to trim $11 million from its budget, worry mounts among the temporary faculty members. Even though President Michael Ortiz announced last week that the university's hours of operations will be reduced this summer as a cost savings measure, Lloyd knows actions like that will not be enough.

"There will be (job) cuts. It's inevitable," he said.

Lloyd is a lecturer who teaches full time and advises a student group. Unlike tenured professors, he is not compensated for his time with students out of the classroom, nor is he compensated for his scholarship that keeps him abreast of his field.

When he stands in front of a class, he looks no different than a tenured professor, and his passion for his work is no less than that of his colleagues with job security. But, he earns less and shares a small office and voice mail with other lecturers.

Strafaci, who works for the Chancellor's Office, said there is an ongoing effort to create more tenured positions in the CSU, but that effort is on hold in light of the volume of cuts coming from the state.

It is a common misconception that lecturers are professionals from the community who teach a class sporadically in their fields, Hoffman said. But Lloyd, who specializes in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, has taught at Cal Poly Pomona for 10 years, while Hoffman has taught English at Cal State Long Beach for more than 20 years.

"For most of the temporary faculty, their whole life is in higher education," Hoffman said.

Lecturers have more protection than ever before, but they still enjoy less job security compared to tenured professors, Lloyd said. Their contracts vary from one quarter or semester to one to three years, but there is always that clause saying the contracts are contingent on the budget and enrollment, he added.

Recently, 11 English lecturers were laid off because of enrollment, Lloyd said. There were more layoffs in other departments, but it's hard to tell because there is no effort to track how many come and go, he said.

The CSU doesn't call it a layoff when lecturers are let go, but Lloyd doesn't see it as anything else.

"Try telling someone who lost their job that they're not laid off. It sounds rather foolish," he said. "But, we are contingent employees."

Ultimately, the educational landscape of CSU campuses will change if there are layoffs of any kind. Even though lecturers naturally worry about their own livelihoods, they also worry about students.

"We're seeing a growing gap between the haves and the have nots in California," Lloyd said. "One of the ways to address this is through education, but that education needs to be available - widely available - and if we keep raising fees we're going to lock some out and if we have to limit classes we're going to lock some out. ... The problem is a long economic and political problem that goes to the issue about what opportunity we have for young people in California."