Wichita State University began as Fairmount College, a Congregational Church institution, in 1895. In 1926, by a vote of the citizens of Wichita, the college became the Municipal University of Wichita, the first municipal university west of the Mississippi. Tax support of the University during this period came from a mill levy on property in the City of Wichita. In 1964, by action of the Kansas Legislature, the University entered into the state system of higher education and became one of six state universities, and one of only three research universities, governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. At this same time Wichita voters approved continuation of a 1.5 mill levy for ongoing support of the University. In 1987, the mill levy was expanded county-wide to include all of Sedgwick County.

The Center for Urban Studies was founded in 1958 as part of the University's commitment to conduct research and improve services in response to the community. An instructional component, the Master of Urban Affairs degree (MUA), was added in 1972, the first degree being awarded in 1974. The MUA was a multi-disciplinary, problem-centered program drawing faculty and resources from a number of academic units across the university. Over time, the MUA began to focus more and more on public policy and on the administration of policy. In 1979, public administration faculty who had been a part of the department of political science moved to the Center for Urban Studies and additional faculty positions were added to the program. The MUA curriculum was revised in the early 1980s to better reflect the public administration emphasis of the program and its faculty. In 1983, the Center was named after Professor Hugo Wall, founder of the Center and national leader in city management professionalism. In 1984, the Kansas Board of Regents approved changing the MUA to the Master of Public Administration.

Through the spring of 1993, the Hugo Wall Center for Urban Studies operated as a separate, integrated academic unit, offering instruction and conducting research and service, and reporting directly to central administration of the University. In Fall 1993, in response to preferences that the Center be housed in a degree-granting college and as part of several university-wide organizational changes, the Hugo Wall School of Urban and Public Affairs was created and placed in Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Initially the School housed the MPA program and the Center for Urban Studies, as well as graduate and undergraduate programs in gerontology and criminal justice, and undergraduate programs in minority studies and social work and was. In 1994, the Kansas Public Finance Center was created as an additional research and service unit in the School.

As a result of changing requirements, the Hugo Wall School was split in 1999 into three units - a School of Social Work; a School of Community Affairs containing criminal justice, gerontology and minority studies; and a school that housed the Master of Public Administration degree program, the Center for Urban Studies and the Kansas Public Finance Center, which retained the name Hugo Wall School of Urban and Public Affairs.