After Lincoln U leader’s death, Black mental health crisis awareness ‘comes at a great cost’

“Heartbreaking.” That is how Falon Ensley, a student and former student government president at Lincoln University, described her feelings reading Antoinette Candia-Bailey’s final email to LU president John Moseley. On Jan. 8, Candia-Bailey, former vice president of student affairs at LU, took her own life. In that final email sent hours before her death, Candia-Bailey describes the toll that life at Lincoln has taken and offers ways that workplace culture could be improved. Candia-Bailey, who went by the nickname “Bonnie,” had assumed her role as vice president in May 2023 — less than than a year prior. In that time she contended she was overworked, subject to microaggressions, faced harassment and bullying after receiving poor performance evaluations, and was dismissed by Moseley and the LU Board of Curators when requesting Family and Medical Leave and Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations due to her mental health. Ensley is disappointed at the university’s inability to “take care of an alum, and also a faculty member that they begged to come back and work.” Rilee Malloy / Columbia Missourian Students protest for administration changes during Lincoln University Founders’ Day Convocation on Feb. 8 at Lincoln University’s Robert and Charlene Mitchell Auditorium in Jefferson...