At the University of Leuven he met the poet Pol De Mont who was a year older. Together they sought to promote a Flemish artistic revival and equal rights for Flemish students as a student movement, creating the "Algemene Vlaamse Studentenbond" (All Flemish Student Association) in 1876. Among their objectives were to have classes in Dutch and to have classes include Flemish culture. The association's illustrated magazine "Het Pennoen" ("The Pennant") published Rodenbach's essays anonymously. Rodenbach maintained his contacts in Roeselare through a committee of correspondence. Their ideology was a mixture of the philosophy Guido Gezelle, with the romantic nationalism of Hendrik Conscience, and the righteousness of true belief. Robenbach and de Mont called their student movement "Blauwvoeterie" after the "blauwvoet" (blue-footed booby) whose flight announces the coming storm. The rallying cry of the "Blauwvoeterie" was "Vliegt de blauvoet, storm op zee!" ("When the bluefoot flies, there is a storm at sea!") Rodenbach compared it to the German "Burschenschaften" movement.