[4] Southern Utah University alumni include U.S. Governors, members of the United States Congress, Olympians, athletes in the NFL, Golden Globe and Academy Award Winners.

It had a large chapel for religious assemblies, a library and reading room, a natural history museum, biological and physical laboratories, classrooms, and offices.

Bennion, who acted as principal, taught history, geography, and physiology classes during his three-year tenure before he left in 1900 to teach at the University of Utah.

SUU still honors his name with the Howard R. Driggs Collection located in the Gerald R. Sherratt Library and plays host to semi-annual lectures by national scholars.

The third, George W. Decker, was a southern Utah native and was adamant about teaching from the student's point of view rather from a book.

In 1951, Daryl Chase became president and was responsible for the schools heightened vision and name change to the "College of Southern Utah" (CSU).

Sherratt also helped with the launching of the Utah Summer Games[10] and the athletic program achieving NCAA Division I status.

President Benson heightened academic standards and increased resources for instruction, significantly raised retention rates, and realigned SUU Athletics in the Big Sky Conference.

[13] Between 2013 and 2014 Wyatt finalized an unprecedented funding campaign, ending in the groundbreaking of the Beverly Taylor Sorensen Center for the Arts in March 2014.

[14] In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, SUU shifted almost completely to remote learning for the remainder of the fall and summer 2020 semesters along with the other public universities in Utah.

[15] After Wyatt accepted a position in the Utah System of Higher Education Office of the Commissioner,[16] Mindy Benson was named interim president in August 2021.

These groups convene regularly to discuss issues of top importance to the university and help advise the president on executive decisions.

The Board of Trustees help facilitate communication between the institution and community, strengthen alumni traditions and goals, select recipient of honorary degrees, and implement and execute fundraising and developmental projects.

The Department of Theatre Arts and Dance offers two types of degrees and is closely connected with the Utah Shakespeare Festival, which is housed at SUU.

[24] The Shakespeare Festival, which is housed on SUU's campus, was founded by Fred C. Adams in 1961 and presented its first season in 1962, bringing in 3,276 spectators.

The Festival is now a year-round operation with a full-time staff of 26 and now an outgoing educational outreach program, including workshops and a touring version of one of the plays.

After more than 25 years, the Utah Summer Games brings in more than 10,000 athletes as young as three from the surrounding region in nearly 40 different Olympic-style competitions.

[28] SUU's, nicknamed the "University of the Parks,"[29][30][31] location in the southeast Great Basin about 20 miles (32 km) north of the northeastern edge of the Mojave Desert gives it a cooler and less arid climate compared to the nearby southern Utah "Dixie" region only 45 minutes south.

With 13 national and state parks near SUU's campus[32] outdoor recreation is a popular student activity, with many participating in rock climbing, hiking, backpacking, camping, mountain biking and boating in the surrounding red cliffs.

When the Thunderbirds entered the Big Sky Conference in 2012 they discontinued baseball and established men's and women's tennis in its place.