History of
| 1877 - James O. Woodruff organized a voyage to educate students while traveling the high seas. Despite elaborate planning, lack of student interest prevented the voyage from taking place. Woodruff's death in 1879, led to the abandonment of what would have been the first voyage of a floating university. |
| 1901 - Another attempt at planning an educational voyage was planned by a naval officer aboard Young America. The program was designed around naval standards of discipline and was for boys only. This concept was unpopular with students and the voyage was ultimately cancelled. |
| 1926 - 504 students and 63 administrators from America arrived in the port of Yokohama, Japan on board the Ryndam. It was the first successful "floating university" in history, and the man responsible was James Edwin Lough of New York University. The floating campus included classrooms, dormitories, laboratories as well as a gymnasium, cafeteria, and library. |
| 1927 - Andrew McIntosh, principal financial banker of the Ryndam program, left Lough and the University Travel Association (UTA) to set up his own organization the International University Cruise, Inc. (IUC). IUC's itinerary included two to four week stays in selected ports, allowing students to experience living among the cultures. 1928 - Lough and McIntosh both launched successful, educational voyages from New York Harbor. |
| 1936-1958 - War clouds looming over Europe made long ocean voyages unsafe. Through the next 22 years of economic instability and war, floating universities did not sail. 1961 - The "University of the Seven Seas" became an independent legal entity, thanks to William T. Hughes and his education committee's dedication to organizing and building a floating university. |
| 1963 - A charter contract is signed and preparations begin to create a university on board the Seven Seas, a 12,574-ton passenger ship. |
| 1963 - This first voyage of the Seven Seas marked the reawakening of a movement that had come to a halt in 1936. |
| 1964 - The University of the Seven Seas did not survive the looming accreditation problems and low enrollment. The floating university's only hope was to become affiliated with an accredited, land-based college. |
| 1965 - The Seven Seas Division of Chapman College was established rescuing the program from the possibility of extinction. |
| 1966 - Chapman received a newer and larger ship from the Holland America Line, named the Ryndam after the first program in 1926. With this acquisition, Chapman renamed the program the World Campus Afloat. Student life under this new program was dramatically different. Males and females were housed on different decks and were prohibited from visiting cabins belonging to members of the opposite sex during the school week. |
| 1970 - The Ryndam needed major renovations to keep it in proper condition. Neither the Holland America Line nor Chapman College were able to finance the repairs. C.Y. Tung, a wealthy ship owner, purchased The Queen Elizabeth, the largest ship ever built, and made it available to Chapman University to replace the older vessel. |
| 1972 - Tung spent $6 million making the Queen Elizabeth suitable for use as a floating university. After its completion a celebration was held on-board the ship for the dock workers and their families. That night a fire broke out in the gallery and the Queen Elizabeth burned like a torch in the night. |
| 1971 - The Universe, became the next home and school to thousands of students and was used throughout the 1970's and 1980's. |
| 1975 - A decision to terminate the World Campus Afloat program is made based on Chapman's financial and personnel problems. |
| 1977 - The University of Colorado takes over the World Campus Afloat and changes its name to what we now know as Semester at Sea. A new era begins as the Universe sails on the very first "Semester at Sea" voyage. |
| 1980-81 - The University of Colorado ends its sponsorship of the program, and the University of Pittsburgh picks up the program in the following year. |
| 1995 - The Universe is retired and the Semester at Sea program adopts the Universe Explorer. It was built in 1958 and needed major renovations before undergoing the Spring 1996 voyage. |
| 1996 - The Universe Explorer becomes the new home for Semester at Sea. |
| 1999 - MTV's Road Rules is allowed to film on the Spring 1999 voyage, raising public awareness of the institution, though through a poor portrayal. The Fall 1999 voyage redeems ISE's image, through CNN's "Millennium Voyage", filmed by Charles Tsai. Interest in the program has sky rocketed, and SAS has reinstated a summer voyage, aboard the MTS Odysseus. |