[8] In February 2000, the committee recommended the new institution be named Nevada State College at Henderson.

[9] 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.

[10] 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.

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[14] raised environmental concerns as it was approximately one mile from a toxic waste storage facility,[15][16] which prompted the Nevada Board of Regents in 2001 to select the college's present day site[17] located west of U.S. Highway 95 in what was once the Wagon Wheel Industrial Park.

[30] Nevada State University's 509-acre (206 ha) site is located at the base of the McCullough mountain range in the southeastern corner of Henderson.

The building includes SMART classroom technologies which allow professors to use a wide array of audio and visual teaching techniques, and scientific equipment for educational use.

NSU currently leases the Dawson building on Nevada State Dr. which was originally the only building when the college opened, and purchased the J. Russell and Carol Raker Student Success Center on Paradise Hills Dr. which contains the financial aid office and student advising.

[35] In 2010, the Nevada Board of Regents approved the college's campus master plan, which calls for the development of roughly six million square feet of academic, residential, retail, and cultural space by full campus build-out in order to accommodate 25,000-30,000 students.

[37] Nevada State College also partners with Touro University to accommodate students in Occupational Therapy.

[39] As of November 2024, Nevada State University was actively planning to launch a fully-fledged athletics program, to be funded through a proposed student fee.