The White president at an HBCU in Missouri has been placed on voluntary paid administrative leave and is being pressured to resign after the school’s Black vice president of student affairs reportedly committed suicide because of “bullying and severe mistreatment,” according to notes she emailed to a Jefferson City television station.
Dr. Antoinette “Bonnie” Candia-Bailey at Lincoln University reportedly took her own life on Jan. 8, and notes she left behind blamed university president Dr. John Moseley for “stigmatized bullying.”
The notes were sent to the CBS Jefferson City affiliate, KCRG-TV. In the notes, Candia-Bailey, a 1998 alum of the HBCU, said she was “intentionally harassed and bullied” after getting a poor evaluation. Her notes alleged that Moseley “ignored requests (failing to respond to emails), or when face-to-face, danced around the topic.” When she reached out to the school’s Board of Curators for relief, the president replied, “Please be advised the Board of Curators does not engage in the management of personnel issues for Lincoln University and will not be taking further action related to this issue.”
On the day she took her life, Candia-Bailey asked anybody but Moseley to inform her family of her death. “You are not to have any contact,” she wrote to him. “You’ve caused enough harm and mental damage.”
The school is investigating Moseley, who has been at Lincoln since 2014 and has worked at HBCUs throughout his career. He became the university’s president in 2022 after being its athletic director and head basketball coach. Moseley also has been an assistant basketball coach at North Carolina Central and Winston-Salem State universities.
On its Facebook page, the school released the following statement on Candia-Bailey: “The Lincoln University community is mourning the loss of beloved alum and leader Dr. Antoinette ‘Bonnie’ Candia-Bailey. Dr. Bailey passed away earlier this week. She was a gifted colleague and always a passionate advocate for Lincoln University, HBCUs, and other causes in which she believed. Dr. Bailey had many friends in the Lincoln University community. As a Blue Tiger community, we grieve with them and send our deepest condolences to Dr. Bailey’s family.”
KCRG contacted Lincoln University leaders for comment beyond the statement, but they declined.
The kind words in the university statement hardly placated members of the LU Alumni Association, who demanded Moseley resign or be fired and started a hashtag — #FireMoseley.
“Dr. Antoinette ‘Bonnie’ Candia-Bailey’s tragic loss to suicide calls us to action,” wrote Alexis Anginette Wells in an Instagram post on Jan. 11. “Join us in solidarity with Lincoln University of Missouri to demand accountability and stand against the silence surrounding mental health and bullying. Together, we can spark a movement for a safer and more compassionate world.”
One of Candia-Bailey’s closest friends blamed herself for not noticing that something was off, even though she had communicated with her earlier the day she died.
“That day I was really beating myself up because I thought, if I had just read the entire email, maybe I could have saved her life,” Monica Graham, who knew Candia-Bailey since college, told KCRG. “I was in denial. I’m like, ‘No, you have to be mistaken. Because I just talked to her. I just got an email from her this morning.’ So, I immediately started trying to call her. And of course, there was no answer. So, when it was confirmed that it was really true, it was really bad for me, and I passed out. I ended up at the doctor.”
If you or someone you know needs help, please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
