I call myself a dinosaur

Let’s start with those lessons. I read in the reactions on LinkedIn that they were fun and instructive. I do not speak from experience because I myself had just graduated when in August 1991 you started teaching at the institute then called NHTV. 

What made your lessons so special? 
‘You’ve invented swinging in front of the class, a student once told me. After 1.5 hours of teaching I was knackered. My breathing technique is not good. Yet, I usually enjoyed myself on that stage. I call myself a dinosaur; I like old-school teaching, face-to-face. I’m very much myself in front of a class; apparently radiating that, and I was able to tell the story convincingly. That’s a profession. It’s wrong to think that someone’s a good lecturer if they have professional knowledge; you have to be able to convey it.’ 

And that’s what you have done for over 35 years, because you were also a teacher in secondary schools, right? 
‘I started working as a teacher of Geography in four schools in the Randstad; which involved piecing together hours, sort of. I found it challenging, and it was the only time I had ever called in sick on a Monday when I wasn’t actually ill. Yet, it was in that mavo (lower general secondary education, ed.) that I got a permanent contract – at another school, the geography department flatly refused to have me. I was 27 and stubborn as a mule. I was quite tactless, but the principal had seen me teaching and gave me a permanent contract. Six months later, I went to NHTV.’  

You became a lecturer of Touristic Geography at NHTV in 1991. How did that go? 
‘Based on my letter, I was rejected. Then, two days before the summer holidays, I got a call asking whether I wanted to come in for a job interview after all. Sure, I thought, so I went there in jeans, a T-shirt and trainers; still at the Sibeliuslaan location at the time. And, believe it or not, as a geography graduate, I got lost on my way to that job interview, really!’ (laughs) ‘I arrived sweating, one minute before the appointment, not expecting anything anymore. After the interview, I was sitting in the inner courtyard and René Hermans said: “You could do with two sparkling mineral waters now!” “You guessed it,” I said. I got the job because they thought I was so relaxed, and the rest is history.’ 

‘So, one day before the holidays, I had to go to that mavo to tell them that I wouldn’t be coming back after the summer. The principal understood. “You’re a good teacher,” he said. “How do you know that?” I asked him, “you’ve never been to one of my lessons!” I had only sent five pupils out of class that year, which was apparently the benchmark. In addition to Social Geography, I also did teacher training, so I made a conscious choice to go into education, which makes a difference. I started as a research assistant at The Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy. I found it so dead boring that I thought, never again!’  

At NHTV, you started at the Academy for Tourism and later you went to Urban Development, Logistics and Mobility (SLM), which is the Academy for Built Environment & Logistics (ABEL) now. Eventually, you were the specialist in the areas of area development financing and planned economy, am I right?  
‘I call myself a desk scholar; I have little experience in the professional field. Well, yes, an administrative position at a camping association, and that’s about it. I have no experience as a planning economist. If I were to start working for a local authority now, I’d be at junior level. During the course I had to take when I started working at SLM I was the one-eyed man who was king, so to speak. SLM was looking for an economic geographer – that’s me, I said – but what they really needed was a financial expert. Hence, that course.’  

You have also taught colleagues who work for BUas now. That’s rather special, right? 
‘Colleagues? Oh, I see. Goof Lukken, for example, when I still worked at the Academy for Tourism. He is a lecturer now. A textbook example of someone with a lot of work experience who later became a lecturer, so very different from me, that is. I now see graduates returning to ABEL as lecturers, and I think, you’ve only been gone a year, right? Turns out it’s been eight years or so.’ 

No funny anecdotes? 
‘Not really. But what’s interesting to tell you perhaps is that I also taught my son, who studied Verkeerskunde. And I was allowed to present him with his diploma, which is normally done by the thesis supervisor. That was very special. He is now a Traffic Engineer at the municipality of Rotterdam and regularly returns to BUas for projects. He also supervises our students doing their placement.’  

So, it’s all in the family? 
‘Well, my brother is the workplace doctor here, Guus van Wietingen. And a niece of mine has done Hotel Management at BUas. So, yes, there’re four Van Wietingens here in the system, but I was the first.’  

Change of approach throughout the years? 
‘Working in teams, and I don’t mean MS Teams. That means throwing away a certain talent, the classics. Don’t get me wrong; I like working together, but now it sometimes seems as if we have to think about everything together. On the other hand, I have always felt that people listened to me. Someone recently said to me, “I had a Marcel moment today.” That’s what they call it, apparently.’ (laughing) ‘It’s true, I often brought out the heavy artillery, but after such a meeting, a compromise was reached because the counterarguments were good.’ 

And now you are leaving the workplace. 
‘Yes, and I’m leaving entirely.’ 
And you’re quitting Starrcase too? 
‘The BUas house band as Jorrit (president of the Executive Board, ed.) likes to call it; yes, I’m also quitting the band.’  

But first, you’re playing a gig at your own farewell party.
‘Yes, because it has to be fun; I really want a party! We’re temporarily reviving the three bands I used to play in. I started in 1995 in a band at Kort-hbo. I played the bass guitar there. I was a lousy bass player, but nobody noticed. Then I started drumming in the SLM band. It started as an ad hoc band for the farewell to the former G Building (NHTV’s temporary location near the municipal offices of Breda (Gemeente Breda), hence the G Building, ed.). We jokingly called it “Farewell to the G spot”. Starrcase is concluding my party today. There is now a successor, who will also be playing. And then I’m going to sing, for a change!’ 

Interview by Maaike Dukker - 't Hart