Amid a sea of pink "vote as if your life depended on it" stickers, Ms. Magazine co-founder Gloria Steinem spoke to an audience of about 300 yesterday in the HUB Auditorium.

Steinem criticized President George W. Bush and his administration's policies for the majority of her speech.

"President Bush is so caught up in being faith-based that he is no longer reality-based," she said.

Steinem also addressed the amount of secrecy she felt existed in the Republican Party, citing the fact that Bush has had the least number of press conferences of any president in history.

She also focused the importance of removing Bush from office.

"We're going to take this country back," Steinem said. "Once we start, there's no stopping us."

Although Steinem is 70 years old, she showed she could identify with concerns of Penn State students by addressing the issue of tuition increases under the Bush administration.

"Tuition has gone up 30 percent under the Bush administration, the highest rate of any four-year period in history," Steinem said.

Another issue on the minds of both Steinem and those in attendance was the importance of individual voting.

Steinem said the voting booth was one of the few places where people of all income levels, races and sexual preferences could be equal.

She also addressed her concerns with the current state of the media, saying news organizations have become dominated by "yelling heads instead of talking heads."

Steinem voiced her concern with current voting laws in the United States as well.

"The voter registration laws in our country are arcane, and the laws are geared toward old, white, rich voters," she said. "It's time that we changed the system so that it is fair to all voters."

Lorraine Dowler, head of the women's studies department, said Steinem did a good job of connecting with her audience.

"She started with local issues, such as tuition cost, and moved out to national issues, which I thought was very effective at getting everyone's attention," she said.

Although the event was organized in only 10 days, Dowler said everything went smoothly, and turnout for the event was good. "I was grateful that many people could come in such short notice," she said.

Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance Vice President Bob Graybill said Steinem did a good job of showing the greater effects of issues, such as water pollution and a potential draft.

Amy Denholtz (senior-public relations and women's studies) said she was impressed by Steinem's speech.

"She was very informed, and I was impressed with the sheer amount of information she knew on so many different topics," she said.

Brendan McCall (senior-women's studies and English) said the event showed that Penn State students are concerned with world events.

"People often think that we don't care about anything else besides football," he said. "This event, as well as the Michael Moore and Teresa Heinz Kerry events, helped to dispel the rumors that Penn State isn't politically active."