Lincoln University, a historically Black institution in Missouri, has carried through on a threat to end its formal relationship with its national alumni association, according to an announcement Thursday.
University leaders claim the Lincoln University of Missouri Alumni Association “stalled and ultimately rejected” repeated attempts over the past two years to create a “standard” memorandum of understanding, and didn’t comply with a recent demand for an independent financial audit.
The move comes after Victor Pasley, president of the university’s Board of Curators, threatened to cut ties with the association earlier this summer if its leaders didn’t sign the MOU and conduct the audit by September. (Association leaders previously told Inside Higher Ed that they counteroffered with their own MOU in April 2023, including some demands, but it was ignored.)
“While the termination of our relationship with LUAA is unfortunate, we are confident that it will not impede our efforts at expanding alumni engagement—rather, we are determined to strengthen our relationship with key individual alumni chapters to continue those partnerships on behalf of the institution we love,” Pasley said in the recent announcement.
The university plans to conduct outreach to those individual chapters and create an Alumni Council to help strengthen the university’s alumni engagement. The announcement stressed that the council “is in no way a replacement for a National Alumni Association.”
The alumni association has been a vocal critic of the university’s board and current president, particularly after the death by suicide of an administrator, Antoinette “Bonnie” Candia-Bailey, early this year. Candia-Bailey accused the president, John Moseley, of bullying her in a letter she wrote him on the day of her death, but a third-party investigation found no evidence and he was restored to his position after an administrative leave. The association has previously called for his resignation and issued a statement of no confidence in the board.
