Inaugural scam?

By Genna Tan

When Rai Cornell was selected to participate in the University Presidential Inaugural Conference in Washington, Cornell said she was excited because she thought she would be able to watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama live.

Instead, she ended up missing the entire event because she was on a flight back to Santa Clara.

Cornell is one of 5,000 university students who attended the conference, and according to her, it fell short of many of the participants' expectations.

Sophomore Michael Truong, who attended the conference, said a lawsuit has been filed against the University Presidential Inaugural Conference because of these students' concerns.

"When people found out that they didn't have tickets to the inauguration, everyone was really angry," said Truong. "Two of the girls' fathers, who are malpractice lawyers, filed a petition."

Cornell said she did not expect the 5,000 university students and 10,000 middle school and high school students at the conference. According to Cornell, who had participated in similar conferences before where only around 200 to 400 students were invited, the organizers did not tell the participants the actual numbers until they got to the conference.

"My participation in all of those previous conferences led them to invite me to this conference, which was supposed to be pretty similar," said Cornell.

"I thought, wow, I'm one of a few hundred students in the entire world to be invited to this conference and see the president that I voted for, that my generation helped support to get into office," she said.

Senior Katee Peek said the invitation she received from the University Presidential Inaugural Conference was vague about the details of the conference.

"The way the invitation was presented was that there would be less people and it would be more intimate," said Peek.

She said the attendees had thought it would be a more professional event, and that the number of students at the conference was unexpected.

Cornell said she did not receive many details from the organization.

"They didn't give us a program ahead of time, which I thought was kind of strange because all the other conferences had given us one," she said. "They didn't tell us anything except for some of the highlights we'd be seeing."

Cornell said she felt she had been misled by the organization because they said she would receive tickets to the inauguration, but when they arrived, students were told to watch it on television.

"They included these little cards that looked like inauguration tickets, and in the literature they told us that we would have tickets, but we found out that these tickets were just props," said Cornell.

Peek said she was upset she did not receive tickets to the inauguration.

On the day of the inauguration, organizers told students to wake up at 3 a.m. and wait for eight and a half hours until the inauguration started, said Peek.

"They basically just gave us maps and said good luck. We had to go find it ourselves," said Peek.

Cornell said the organization did not give any reasons why there were no tickets for the students, and "acted as if everything was going according to plan."

Truong, who attended similar conferences in high school, said he felt cheated because the organization was not up-front about the lack of tickets.

"If I knew that they weren't giving us tickets, I could have just gone by myself," he said.

According to Cornell, the event was very disorganized. When the students had to travel by chartered buses, all 5,000 students were told to board the 170 buses they provided at one bus stop, said Cornell. Peek said she waited in line at the bus stop for two hours.

For the inauguration itself, students were told to go to the National Press Office or Hard Rock Café to watch it on television, said Cornell.

When she found out that she was not getting tickets, Cornell said she decided to leave the conference a day early.

"I actually didn't watch the inauguration because I left on Tuesday after I found out that we didn't have tickets and that our inaugural ball was going to be just 15,000 students, and nobody of political importance was going to be there. It was just a complete fraud," said Cornell.

Peek, who went to the general viewing area for the inauguration, said she left after some time because people were drinking and the crowd started to get violent.

A statement released by the founders of the Congressional Youth Leadership Council cited the "unprecedented crowds" at the inaugural events as a reason for the "challenges that negatively impacted many of the participants."

Cornell said she paid about $3,000 to attend the Conference, including her airfare.

"I just want a refund, because it came out of my college tuition fund," said Cornell. "I work six jobs and my dad works three and a half jobs and we work really hard to save up money for my college fund. This was supposed to be an educational and enjoyable political experience, and it was $3,000 that could be going to my college fund, completely wasted. It was a horrible waste."

According to the released statement, staff members from the organization are investigating concerns and have already issued refunds to "families and scholars who experienced complications during the conference."

Contact Genna Tan at (408) 554-4546 or gbtan@scu.edu.