The institution that is now RSU has gone through several stages, from its foundation as a state-sponsored preparatory school to its transition to a military academy, and finally to its current incarnation as a four-year regional university.

In 1919 it was restarted as the Oklahoma Military Academy (OMA), to meet the growing educational and training needs of the United States armed forces.

In 2014, RSU celebrated the opening of its new Pryor campus at the MidAmerica Industrial Park in Mayes County, Oklahoma.

The $10 million construction project and 83-acre site were provided to the university by the Oklahoma Ordnance Works Authority, which operates the park as a public trust.

Their mascot, a fictional animal based on a bobcat and named for the hill that the school sits upon, was chosen in 2005 by a group of students.

After his departure to Northwest Missouri State for a similar position Baker was replaced by Ryan Bradley, previously the associate athletic director for external relations.

Bradley departed for the University of Memphis to work for Baker, then deputy athletic director for the Tigers.

In 2013, Ryan Erwin joined Rogers State as the director of athletics from Dallas Baptist University.

On August 1, 2016, Erwin announced his resignation to accept the vice president and director of athletics position at East Texas Baptist University (NCAA D-III).

The station is home to many telecourses and interactive courses, part of RSU's distance-learning programs.

It was produced in collaboration with the Claremore Daily Progress which allowed the student editors to print their newspaper for distribution on all three of Rogers State University's campuses and allowed for the newspaper to be inserted within regular issues of the Claremore Daily Progress.

In early 2023, the Oklahoma Epsilon chapter of Phi Delta Theta was inducted, marking the establishment of the first official fraternity at Rogers State University.

[18] In the lawsuit, Parris claimed he was pressured to approve non-business travel as university expenses and refused to do so.

Parris alleged that both Wiley and the university's vice president for business affairs attempted to coerce him.