Several college radio stations, including WNUW, visited the White House on September 24, just eight days before National College Radio Day on October 2. 

“We, alongside other schools who participate with College Radio Day, visited the White House to discuss college affordability and sexual assault on campus, in addition to Title IX,” said Sean McDonald, general manager of Neumann Media and vice president of College Radio Day.

Students sat with Senior Advisor to the President and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls Valerie Jarret, and Associate Director of Public Engagement and Senior Policy Advisor Kyle Lierman, to discuss the "It's On Us" campaign to end campus sexual assault. Neumann students discussed with Jarret and Lierman the importance of college media in spreading the message, as well as what the administration is doing to protect victims through the work of Title IX. 

	Erin Martz, Chris Ullrich and Nick Spica (far end of table) met with Cecilia Munoz, director of the Domestic Policy Council, and her Deputy Director James Kvaal (on the left), to discuss college affordability.
	Erin Martz tries her hand at being the White House press secretary.

The college radio students then met with Cecilia Munoz, director of the Domestic Policy Council, and her Deputy Director James Kvaal, to discuss college affordability. As people currently paying for tuition, the student questioned the Council on the administration’s vision to make community college free, its impact on private institutions like Neumann University, the new rules for FAFSA beginning in October 2016, and how to properly educate students on the responsibility they undertake when taking out loans.

The day ended in the West Wing, with a casual conversation followed by an on the record question and answer session with Press Secretary Josh Earnest in the Roosevelt Room. The meeting ended with the reading of an official letter from President Barack Obama, declaring his support for not only the 5th anniversary of College Radio Day, but for all college radio stations in the country.

According to the College Radio Day website, the aim of the day is “to raise a greater, national awareness of the many college and high school radio stations that operate in the USA by encouraging people who would not normally listen to college radio to do so on this day. It is hoped that those people who do tune in like what they hear and become regular listeners.”

The organizers of College Radio Day believe that college radio is one of the last remaining bastions of creative radio programming, free from the constrictions of having to be commercially viable, and an important part of the media landscape because of its unique and fearless programming. Being a participant in this day is free for all college and high school radio stations (AM, FM or online).