Robert Hartwell became the Director of Athletics at Adelphi in 1986 and was eventually promoted to Assistant Vice President in 2009. During his tenure, Hartwell worked to upgrade each athletic facility on campus and oversaw a graduation rate of over 90-percent among student-athletes. The longtime administrator played a crucial role in the Panthers’ move from the East Coast Conference to the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009 – giving him four years in the league before his retirement.
From 2009-13, Hartwell led an athletics program that made an immediate impact in the NE10, as the Panthers accounted for three NCAA titles (all in women’s lacrosse), over 40 NCAA Tournament appearances, five NE10 regular season titles, 15 NE10 Tournament titles by 20 individual champions and Adelphi won the coveted NE10 Presidents’ Cup for the first time in 2012-13.