How an East Texas community college transformed a catch-all website into a focused, student-centered marketing tool.
About Trinity Valley Community College:
“I have never launched a website of this magnitude before, and it was simply a breeze. The customer service was excellent.”
Patrick Wauschek | Web and Communications Specialist
The Challenge
Known as the “Home of Champions,” Trinity Valley Community College (TVCC) has built a strong presence in East Texas. With 43 national championships, the college has lots of legacy to share. Beyond athletics, TVCC offers a broad range of academic and workforce programs, from career and technical education to associate degrees and certificates.
Originally built by TVCC’s internal IT team, the website went 16 years without a redesign. It had become the default destination for everything that the college had to share.
"It became a catch-all,” said Shaydi Clary, Director of Marketing and Communications. “Everything that was considered even slightly important was sent directly to the website.”
Content had accumulated over the years, and the site now had over 1,000 pages. Site navigation was difficult: some dropdown menus had as many as 15 items, and the search bar wasn’t working.
Beyond those usability concerns, the website had lost a clear audience: it mixed internal and external information, and departments often wrote in the language they used internally.
“A lot of the language that was being used on the website was not very helpful,” said Patrick Wauschek, Web and Communications Specialist. "There were a lot of acronyms. There were a lot of long paragraphs.”
When Dr. Jason Morrison became president in 2023, he looked at the website from a learner’s perspective and saw that it needed to change. He called for a new website and put marketing in the driver’s seat. That shift in ownership sparked a bigger conversation: who was the site serving? And what information belonged there?
“We thought, ‘let's make it a marketing tool. Let's make it so that students understand exactly the top five things they need to know, in one place, at one time.’”
Shaydi Clary
The Solution
The redesign gave TVCC a chance to put students at the center of its web experience. With Modern Campus CMS, a three-person team could deliver a major website transformation while keeping the work in-house. Modern Campus Web Hosting helped reduce dependencies on TVCC's IT team, supporting the site through launch and ongoing operations.
The team used prospective students and parents as their north star: on the new site, every page had to give them the information they need and make the next step clear, from choosing a program to navigating financial aid and enrollment.
“Keeping the audience of prospective students and parents in mind really set the guardrails for everything,” said Wauschek.
As the team decided what to keep, rework, or retire, they reorganized the site around the student journey rather than the college's org chart. New homes were found for information that served internal audiences, and material that didn't belong on the public site was moved into internal portals. The team also established clear ownership for what remained, giving TVCC a plan for keeping the site current after launch.
Working with departments across campus, they established a consistent structure for program pages, with key information on each program, including its cost, outcomes, and how to get started. Using Modern Campus Design Studio's design library and higher ed expertise, the team created a cohesive visual identity while customizing the pages for TVCC’s needs.
Website Search helps visitors find information quickly, while giving the team the ability to pin key results based on what people are searching for. With Calendar, the team can surface event details and filter events by category, making it faster for students to see what’s happening on campus.
After roughly a year and a half, Trinity Valley launched its new website on May 22.
“It was a great experience, not just because we launched the website, but because we had constant support. Everybody was there for each other.”
Patrick Wauschek
The Results
The new site dramatically reduced the amount of content TVCC manages
The new site is leaner by design. Rather than carrying information simply because someone at the college needed a place for it, the new site focuses on content that serves its audiences and helps learners find what they need. The result is a public site with less to manage and a clearer purpose for every page.
“The old website had over 1,000 pages, not counting the athletics website, which is a whole different ballgame,” Wauschek said. “I would say we are now at roughly 300-400 pages.”
It's now easier for students to find answers and take the next step
For students navigating enrollment, the new site puts key information and next steps in one place. That gives students a clearer view of what they need to move forward while reducing the number of routine questions that teams and departments have to field.
“Adding step-by-step enrollment instructions was huge,” said Clary, “because that’s a question that gets asked every day.”
TVCC’s new website is earning recognition beyond campus
The work earned a National Council for Marketing & Public Relations District 4 Best Website Award, recognizing the team’s more focused, student-centered approach to the web experience.
“Trinity Valley is known as the ‘Home of Champions.’ We now have a championship-level website with the help of Modern Campus.”
Patrick Wauschek
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