By Jim Kinney | jkinney@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD — At his inauguration Thursday as the seventh president of Western New England University, Joseph C. Hartman recalled being asked to teach the computer language Fortran.
Adding the Fortran class to his duties at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania would convince the board of trustees to make his position permanent.
“Did I know Fortran? Not at all,” Hartman told an audience of hundreds gathered in the Caprio Alumni Healthful Living Center. “But I figured I had a few months to figure it out.”
Experiences, and growing from them, were a theme of the event.
The university chose Hartman in January to succeed interim President Michael Alexander after former President Robert E. Johnson retired in August 2025.
Hartman took over June 1.
Most recently, he’d been provost and vice chancellor for academic and student affairs at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he led academic affairs since 2019.
He’s taking over at Western New England University at a tough time for higher education, as multiple speakers noted Thursday.
Hartman received the symbols of his office — the staff-like college mace, the presidential medallion and a copy of the university charter — from former President Anthony S. Caprio.
Higher ed nationwide is facing a demographic cliff, and fewer children mean fewer high school seniors and fewer potential students.
U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, said the cost of attending a college or university is under the microscope.
“I might point out there’s a competing narrative today that is very troubling to me, and that is that the investment in college may well not be worth it,” Neal said.
It is worth it, he concluded, recalling how important his own acceptance letter was for his immigrant grandparents.
The university lists costs on its website of $54,810 a year for tuition, fees and room and board. But the university promises gifts, aid and other help, bringing the average out of pocket cost closer to $22,234.
Hartman addressed the cost issue.
“At a time when students and families are asking questions about the value of higher education, institutions like Western New England University have a compelling answer. You provide rigorous academics with meaningful experience,” he said, “through experiential learning, strong partnerships and the support of the community. We help students discover possibilities they did not yet see in themselves.”
Hartman recalled getting a job as a lab assistant as a sophomore engineering student at the University of Illinois.
“Suddenly, engineering wasn’t something I was studying,” Hartman said. “It was something I was doing.”
The university has 3,674 students from 40 states and territories and from 28 countries. Of those, 2,543 are full-time undergraduates.
“Western New England (University) is a place where students find people who believe in them,” said Blanca Amaya, Class of 2027 and president of the student senate.
After Hartman’s ceremony, the university held an official opening for its new Center for Advanced Manufacturing Systems.
The new lab received $1.95million in state and federal funding, including an $850,000 federal earmark and a $1.1 million grant from the Healey administration through MassTech’s Innovation Institute.
