It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in operation since 1923.

[16] On March 11, 2020, an email was sent to Cleveland State students regarding the changes made due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2006, Cleveland State University completed its student Recreation Center and a renovation of Parker Hannifan Hall for the College of Graduate Studies.

[citation needed] In 2011, the new Euclid Commons dorms complex, which features apartment-style living for CSU students, opened.

That same year, the university's Dramatic Arts Program moved into the renovated Middough Building and Allen Theatre at Playhouse Square Center in collaboration with the Cleveland Play House.

[20] During the fall semester of 2012, the first phase of the private Langston apartment and retail complex opened along Chester Avenue across from Rhodes Tower.

In the spring semester of 2013, the former Viking Hall dormitory was torn down to make way for the university's new Center for Health Professions.

One of the most famous alumni of the College of Law was Tim Russert, host of television program Meet the Press, who graduated in 1976.

[36] In 2022, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on a researcher at Cleveland State University whose "home institution was essentially providing a soapbox for racist pseudoscience.[...]

Despite nearly a dozen publications over more than a decade arguing for the intellectual inferiority of Black people," the professor was judged to have meritorious research and was promoted and given tenure.

In 2022 he was fired following an investigation by the National Institutes of Health that found that he had violated regulations concerning the handling of medical data.

For many years the school mascot was the comic strip character Hägar the Horrible along with his wife Helga, and the couple appeared at sporting events as well as on University literature.

The men's basketball team was noteworthy in 1986 when seeded 14th in the East Region of the NCAA tournament, it upset heavily favored 3-seed Indiana and Saint Joseph's before a one-point loss to a Navy team led by future Hall of Famer David Robinson, an unprecedented achievement for such a low seed.

The Vikes made yet another NCAA tournament appearance in 2009, upsetting the highly favored 4 seed Wake Forest before falling to Arizona in the second round.

On October 14, 2008, CSU President Michael Schwartz stated "he wants a blue ribbon panel to give him a recommendation on the football team before July 1, 2009, when he was scheduled to retire.