MUNCIE, Ind. — Classes were not too crowded the first time David Clute enrolled at Ivy Tech — 32 years ago.

Back then, Muncie’s branch of Indiana Vocational Technical College, as the school was known, was where 822 blue-collar kids went to get the skills necessary for well-paying factory jobs.

But those jobs are vanishing in the roiling economy. And now the Muncie campus is brimming with more than 4,100 students, many of them, like Clute, laid off and looking to train for new careers.

That quest in a state with more than 300,000 people out of work has driven record-breaking enrollments across Ivy Tech Community College’s 23 campuses. Yet, just as workers eager to retrain are swamping the community college, Ivy Tech says a cash crunch could force it to turn students away for the first time in its 46-year history — as many as 15,000, according to its own estimate.

Lawmakers are bracing to complete a budget before the end of the month, but they may have a hard time finding the funds Ivy Tech says it needs. The governor’s latest budget proposal does not include the money.

On the heels of a summer term enrollment surge of 33 percent, the college could see an enrollment increase this fall that tops 25 percent, said Don Doucette, senior vice president and provost.

“We can’t accommodate that much without additional resources. We think we might be able to absorb another 6 to 8 percent, but after that we run out of capacity.”

A decade ago, when Ivy Tech had 67,500 students enrolled statewide, running out of space seemed impossible. But last year, nearly twice that number, 120,447, were enrolled. And while state lawmakers debate next year’s budget, Ivy Tech has established an enrollment committee to search for answers should that number continue to grow.

A few of the options to save money: capping enrollment; delaying the hiring of full-time faculty members; juggling schedules to eliminate low-enrollment classes; and adding classes in high demand. And students have been hammered with messages to enroll early.

John Mukes got that message loud and clear, enrolling in summer school at Muncie rather than taking the summer off while working toward a degree in culinary arts.

“I figure there’s no jobs doing anything else, so I am doing this to start my own business,” the 44-year-old New Castle resident said. “I used to lay carpet. The money is good, but it’s hard on the back.”

Nationwide, community colleges are the largest providers of higher education, with more than a third of the country’s 18.2 million students enrolled, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

According to a survey of 120 community college presidents by the Campus Computing Project, those campuses have been seeing dramatic enrollment gains: 92 percent said enrollments are up in 2009, and 71 percent said the enrollment increase was 5 percent or more.

Ivy Tech, among the fastest-growing in America, has a long-range plan to spend nearly a half-billion dollars over the next decade to upgrade or replace many old buildings throughout the state.

Ivy Tech’s campuses can have a spartan feel. The one in Muncie features a metal-sided pole barn and retrofitted classroom trailers in the heart of a once-vibrant industrial area.

But the classrooms inside look very much like what you would see in many small college campuses. Wide hallways accommodate stand-up computer stations, with a smattering of tables and chairs for study and consultation.

No big food courts here. Small snack rooms have vending machines and microwaves. Outside, a hot dog vendor and a food booth alternate middays on campus.

It’s a nice place to work, said English instructor Kristen Dana. At 29, she is younger than many of her students — although more of the new students are fresh out of high school, taking advantage of less expensive classes that will transfer to four-year institutions.

“There’s a wide mix of ages,” Dana said. “Some are right out of high school. Others are much older. I’m really not sure we have a typical class demographic.”

President Tom Snyder said that is the essence of Ivy Tech’s value to Indiana — a community college that appeals not only to young students as a gateway to a four-year degree, but also to adults who have lost jobs or seek changes in their lives.

Struggling to convince lawmakers that the college needs more money, Snyder paints a bleak picture if enrollment has to be capped.

“We will probably have to turn people away, and that is the worst thing to do now,” he said, pointing to statewide unemployment figures that rose from 152,405 in April 2008 to 314,982 in April this year.

Saying he understands the budget realities in Indiana, Snyder points out that Ivy Tech has trimmed $10 million in annual costs by consolidating bookstore functions, computers and copiers. But the college still faces a $40 million deficit in the operating budget as it tries to educate more students.

Raising tuition for students who are already looking to save money is not the answer, he said.

“We are historically the folks who take people who don’t have other options,” Doucette said. “If we can’t accommodate them, what’s going to happen to them?”