3 From Valley Colleges Going to White House

A bureaucratic miscue between the White House and the Los Angeles Community College District has provided three San Fernando Valley college students the opportunity of a lifetime.

Gabriel Monge of Mission College in Sylmar, Sandra Salamone of Valley College in Van Nuys, and Pam Austen from Pierce College in Woodland Hills will each meet the President, cabinet members and congressional leaders Thursday at the White House’s Media College Day.

White House officials said they had intended to invite just one student from the district, but community college officials instructed deans at each of the nine campuses in the district to select an outstanding journalism student to send.

The miscommunication was discovered when Mission College’s public affairs director called the White House on Wednesday to inform media officials that Monge, 24, would be attending.

“Apparently, they thought they had invited just one student,” said Ina Geller, a spokeswoman at Mission.

Later, White House officials acknowledged the misunderstanding, but decided to allow one student per campus to attend, provided each student could confirm his or her flight reservation with the White House by today.

“We’re still figuring it out,” said Laura Schwartz, midwest region director at the White House Media Center. “We had sort of focused on one student per college newspaper, but if there are a number of different campuses . . . we could have one from each.”

Schwartz said about 200 college journalists from around the country were invited to the conference, which is intended to give students an inside look at how the White House and the media interact.

Though the agenda is not final, students will participate in a series of forums with senior administration officials, followed by a question and answer session with President Clinton.

Monge, of San Fernando, said he is so excited about the trip that he hasn’t been able to sleep. His airplane fare and hotel expenses will be paid for by the Mission College Foundation and the Associated Student Organization.

“I won’t really believe it until I’m on the plane,” he said.

Monge plans to pursue a career in journalism, even though his training was interrupted last year when funding cuts caused the college to silence the Free Spirit, the campus newspaper, and to stop offering journalism courses.

“If I get to ask the President a question, I would ask him about AIDS research,” Monge said, “and about accessibility of education for immigrants. That’s something I’m worried about. Especially in California.”

At Valley College, Sandra Salamone, 36, said she hadn’t yet thought about what question she would ask the President. “I’m just trying to raise the air fare,” she said. “When I found out I was invited, I had trouble breathing.”

Salamone said she is writing a story about the conference for the college paper, the Valley Star, which she edited last year.

District officials said that only three students from the district were confirmed to attend the conference so far, though students from two other colleges were attempting to make arrangements in time to go.