Civil Rights activist Linda Chavez will return to Penn State after speaking about the labor movement and unions in 1997 to address her views about affirmative action and diversity.

She is the final speaker in the Distinguished Speaker Series and will speak at 8 tonight in Schwab Auditorium.

"[Affirmative action] is one of the most important social issues that faces America today and is especially important on college campuses," she said.

Chavez said racial preferences are widely used on colleges and universities as a means of accepting minority students, which she said "violates the spirit and letter of the law and the Constitution."

Chavez wrote two books and a third will be released in June. One is an autobiography titled An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal (or How I Became the Most Hated Hispanic in the World).

Chavez left the Democratic Party in 1985; however, she said most people are no longer surprised by her political views.

"I'm well enough known; I've been so active that most people know," she said. "Young people sometimes are [surprised] because they are in a position where they haven't necessarily followed my career for 30 years; they haven't even been alive for 30 years. So they hear my name and say, 'Oh jeez, she must be in favor of affirmative action.' Then when they find out I'm a critic, their ears perk up, and they listen."

Chavez said she feels the Democratic Party left her when it started to merge left in the 1970s, and she has not changed her views since becoming a republican.

"I never changed my position on affirmative action. I had that view when I was a democrat," she said.

"They made it difficult for me. The Democratic Party embraces racial preferences; I don't feel I changed my position."

Lindsey Broad, a Distinguished Speaker Series committee member, said Chavez was invited to speak because of her unique viewpoint.

"She offers a really interesting perspective on conservatism, being that she is from a background that usually produces liberals," she said.

Chavez said she spends most of her time on her syndicated newspaper column, a daily live radio show, and as a political analyst for FOX News.

"I'm out there getting my message across," she said.

Committee Chair Matt Boyer said this is the only lecture to be held in Schwab instead of the Eisenhower Auditorium this year because they are expecting fewer people than normal.

However, the committee still expects "a healthy turnout," and Chavez is important to balance out the series, which hosted liberal comedian Margaret Cho.

"We knew we needed a response to Cho," he said. "We feel [Chavez] will have a passion for ideas but in a different way than Cho."