{"id":118777,"date":"2020-10-21T17:54:40","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T15:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=118777"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:10","slug":"in-de-smitse-gets-visit-from-its-founder-we-had-a-pub-built-in-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/10\/21\/in-de-smitse-gets-visit-from-its-founder-we-had-a-pub-built-in-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"In de Smitse gets visit from its founder: \u2018We had a pub built in secret\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

In celebration of Rotterdam School of Management\u2019s fiftieth anniversary<\/a>, last Friday, In de Smitse was visited by Jaap de Smit, the gentleman to whom the campus bar owes its name \u2013 and indeed its very existence.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFeba Sukmana<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

In de Smitse dates back to the early 1970s. What started as an RSM establishment developed over the years into today\u2019s iconic campus caf\u00e9. \u201cEvery campus community in the Netherlands, from Rotterdam to Tilburg, knows In de Smitse,\u201d says the board chair of the bar, Sem Sint Nicolaas, with some pride. In de Smitse is the largest buyer of Hertog Jan beer in the world: in a good year good for some 1,050 hectolitres in sales. In addition, the bar team supply alcoholic beverages to a host of other student events \u2013 both on and off campus. \u201cEurekaweek, music festivals: you name it. Wherever there\u2019s beer, you can expect to find us too.\u201d The bar is currently run by five board members and a team of 25 bartenders.<\/p>\n

Iron emblem<\/h2>

Four of the board members welcome Jaap de Smit to In de Smitse at 3 p.m. De Smit is wearing his red RSM jumper under his dark blue jacket and is flanked by his wife Loes and RSM alumnus and corporate historian Ronald van der Heijden, who organised this reception. In honour of the occasion, the board has set up In de Smitse\u2019s iron emblem \u2013 its first sign \u2013 between two barstools.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt belongs on that wall over there,\u201d says Sint Nicolaas, pointing to the yellow wall in the back of the bar. Old black and white photos and memorabilia hang on it. \u201cWe always keep a sharp eye on this iron emblem. Because of course, it\u2019s precisely the sort of thing that students like to nick,\u201d he says half-jokingly. The sign was made by \u2018non-technical students\u2019 in Delft during the subject workshop technology, explains De Smit, \u2018at some point in the 70s\u2019. \u201cThe emblem actually has a mistake.\u201d He crouches and puts his finger on the letter \u2018t\u2019. \u201cYou see? If you look hard, you can see there used to be a \u2018d\u2019 here instead of a \u2018t\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On the sly<\/h2>

Seventy-seven-year-old De Smit is an enthusiastic guide to the caf\u00e9\u2019s history. \u201cWhen we started on our programme in Kralingen, we could go to Caf\u00e9 Stobbe on the corner. But after moving to Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), we didn\u2019t have anything like that.\u201d De Smit worked as director of Stichting Bedrijfskunde, as RSM was known at the time. At their new location in Delft, the students and staff missed a common area where they could get together in an informal atmosphere. So they set up a bar, in an old building. \u201cIt was dreadful: the air-conditioning created acoustic bridges between the different rooms, and we had to make a hole in the wall for each of the cooling units.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around 1975, De Smit ordered the construction of a new lecture hall \u2013 purportedly for conducting experiments. He asked the contractor to put in brown walls. Other items on his wish list included a water supply, drain and electricity, but his application was turned down by TU Delft\u2019s facilities department. \u201cSo we decided to have it installed on the sly,\u201d De Smit remembers with a grin. The room\u2019s official name, Lecture Hall 9, was used as a code word among RSM students. It didn\u2019t take long before the bar had attracted an outside sponsor and was rechristened in De Smit\u2019s honour. And when the programme returned to Rotterdam, the caf\u00e9 came along too. What is De Smit\u2019s take on the fact that \u2018his\u2019 bar can now be found in the Hatta building, right under the student housing units? \u201cDo students live on campus nowadays? Wow, it\u2019s almost as if we\u2019re in America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Do students live on campus nowadays? Wow, it\u2019s almost as if we\u2019re in America.\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

RSM\u2019s fiftieth anniversary<\/h2>

De Smit\u2019s informal visit was arranged in honour of RSM\u2019s anniversary. Corporate historian Ronald van der Heijden is the man responsible for organising today\u2019s visit and the anniversary project as a whole. RSM\u2019s fiftieth anniversary inspired Van der Heijden to delve into the rich past of his own faculty. His findings were the starting point for various interesting initiatives, including videos and a collection of personal reminiscences shared via RSM\u2019s anniversary website. \u201cI\u2019ve been in close touch with Jaap since the start of this project. When I told him I had rounded off my work, this met with a very enthusiastic response. He told me he looked forward to seeing the results,\u201d says Van der Heijden. \u201cSo I thought to myself: let\u2019s make it something special!\u201d<\/p>\n

The party walks over from In de Smitse to the Mandeville Building, to admire the fruits of Van der Heijden\u2019s labours. As part of the project, the team has put up a timeline for the faculty\u2019s history on the third floor of the building. This shows a selection of highlights from RSM\u2019s 50-year existence. A nine metres long LED panel displays an array of digitised photos and newspaper articles, from 1970 to the present day.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHey, you can see my office on this one,\u201d says De Smit, pointing to a picture of RSM\u2019s first premises in Kralingen. \u201cI had the best room in the building, with this hefty two-by-one metre desk. One of my colleagues was looking forward to taking over my room before we left for Delft, but no one could shift my desk. So I sat there nice and tight until the move,\u201d remembers De Smit, with a twinkle in his eye.<\/p>\n

Advocate of internationalisation<\/h2>

De Smit is particularly drawn to the mementos of the 1970s. \u201cI remember this nursery school.\u201d He\u2019s pointing to a panorama picture of a lecture. In its second year, the programme was faced with a space shortage, so it regularly used a small primary school on Oude Dijk as a makeshift lecture hall.<\/p>\n

De Smit has been a strong advocate of internationalisation from the very start of his career. He laid the groundwork for the faculty\u2019s exchange programmes and believed that RSM should offer its lectures in English. \u201cAt one point, I had 47 nationalities in a group of 40 students,\u201d he says with some pride. While diversity and inclusion are fine in themselves, he was driven by more pragmatic considerations: international experiences and familiarity with other cultures will stand you in good stead in the business world. \u201cSay you\u2019re doing business with a German. Who do you think will get the better deal: someone who speaks fluent German, or someone who doesn\u2019t know the first thing about German culture?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018You shouldn\u2019t have more than 80 students attending a lecture at a time. Larger numbers affect the group dynamics.\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

While De Smit is chuffed that \u2018his little school\u2019 has developed into \u2018a major international player\u2019, he does feel the programme has become too large. \u201cWhen we moved from Delft to Rotterdam, we had 500 students. At the time, I already felt the student body had become too large,\u201d he remembers. \u201cMass-scale education is detrimental to quality. You shouldn\u2019t have more than 80 students attending a lecture at a time. Larger numbers affect the group dynamics.\u201d<\/p>\n

After going over the timeline, the group return to In de Smitse to cap off the afternoon. De Smit asks the bartender whether he could have a Leffe Blond, his favourite (\u201cNaturally\u201d). He seems to be getting a bit tired \u2013 but with a cool glass of beer in his hand, he doesn\u2019t mind taking one last trip down memory lane. His soft voice and leisurely narration take the audience back to the days when a glass of beer still cost 30 cents.<\/p>\n

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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