In 1999, the
Nevada Legislature created the Advisory Committee to Examine Locating a 4-Year State College in Henderson, Nev. In December 1999, the Nevada Board of Regents approved the establishment of Nevada State College. Later that month, the Henderson City Council, after having evaluated several potential sites, voted to locate Nevada State College northeast of Lake Mead Drive and Boulder Highway that was to be part of The LandWell Company's Provenance master-planned community. In March, James Rogers, owner of several television stations and later chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education, agreed to chair the college's foundation. Opponents of the creation of Nevada State College feared at the time that its creation would take resources from UNLV. However, proponents of the college argued the "proposed college would be up to $3,000 cheaper than educating them at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The savings would come from smaller salaries for professors, who would teach four classes (per semester), rather than the three or fewer taught by UNLV professors." In April 2000, the Board of Regents voted 8–3 to begin negotiations for the Boulder Highway / Lake Mead site despite some concerns that the site was near a permanent toxic waste storage facility. The original site of the college, first proposed in 2000 and on approximately 300 acres northeast of Lake Mead Drive and Boulder Highway near downtown Henderson which prompted the Nevada Board of Regents in 2001 to select the college's present day site located west of U.S. Highway 95 in what was once the Wagon Wheel Industrial Park. In June 2000, the Regents requested $5.2 million for start-up costs for the campus and $7 million for instruction costs for its first cohort of students in 2002–03 as well as $43.5 million for capital construction which was to include a library. Nevada Gov. Guinn's 2001–2003 executive budget, which was developed later in 2000, reduced the Regents' request by recommending "$22.8 million in state funding, 6.8 million to open it to 1,000 full-time students in the fall of 2002, and $16 million to help construct the first campus building." Nevada State College opened in 2002. The college acquired accreditation, moved with its master plan for a campus, and its first permanent building, the Liberal Arts and Sciences building, opened in August 2008. In 2008 Nevada State College launched a campus-wide recruitment and retention initiative. Between the Spring 2009 and Spring 2010 semesters, Nevada State College increased enrollment by over 20%, to over 2,600 students. Among the different educational institutions of the NSHE, the largest 2009 budget cuts by the state legislature were for Nevada State College at 24.1%. Neighboring
College of Southern Nevada had its budget cut by only 4.9%. Students protested the cuts which left student services understaffed and about 25% of the university's teaching and administrative positions vacant in 2008. The Nevada System of Higher Education faced a $900 million budget deficit and there were proposals to close down Nevada State College along with other NSHE programs and schools.
DeRionne Pollard became Nevada State University's eighth president on August 16, 2021. She was the first Black female president within the
Nevada System of Higher Education. In March 2023, the Nevada Legislature introduced legislation to change the school's name from Nevada State College to Nevada State University. The legislation passed that June; the name change took effect on July 1, 2023.
Presidents The following persons served as president: Table notes: ==Campus==