Sen Arlen Specter, R-Pa, said these days that his hair has drawn more attention than his policies.

"Some people think I should shave my head and become a sex symbol," Specter said, discussing his recent hair loss due to chemotherapy treatments.

Specter spoke to a small crowd of community members and students about his experiences and answered several questions yesterday in the HUB Heritage Hall.

Specter is currently serving his 5th term and is the longest serving Senator in Pennsylvania history. At the meeting, he talked about his recent treatments of chemotherapy and reassured the audience he was still capable of serving another term.

Penn State Political Science Association (PSA) co-sponsored the event at the request of Specter who hoped to discuss issues directly concerning students.

PSA President Brittany Thomas (senior-political science) said the event was intended for students, however the audience mostly consisted of community members.

"Arlen Specter had a great sense of humor and was very knowledgeable about everything. I don't feel that he was empty-worded, as some politicians can be. He was really looking to hear people's concerns, instead of just staging a photo-op," Thomas said.

Michael Steel (sophomore-international relations, Spanish, journalism) was the only person to identify himself as a student and asked Specter what he plans to do to help students whose families have trouble securing loan payments for school.

"In my 20 years of life, I've never actually had to experience anything like the credit financial crisis that has affected my family the way the current crisis is now. For example, my father lost his 401K in the Lehman [Brothers] collapse," Steel said.

Specter said he would support financial aid on a case-to-case basis, taking the situation of each family into account based on the current economic downturn.

Covering a diverse range of topics, Specter answered questions about Guantanamo Bay, the federal bailout and Cuba. Specter, who said he was in support of improving Cuba's global reputation, went into detail about his experience with Cuba and meeting with Fidel Castro on several occasions.

"I went down and saw him several years ago. He invited me to dinner at 8:00, we started to eat at midnight and we finished up at 2:40 a.m. This is a true story, you don't get many out of Washington," Specter said.

He said Fidel has led Cuba down a bad path of major violation of human rights but the U.S. government could have done more for human rights in Cuba by dealing with him rather than by ignoring him.

The purpose of the town hall meeting was to open dialogue between Specter, the community and students, said Thomas who was disappointed in student attendance and involvement during the meeting.

"I wish more students had asked questions. I felt that there were a lot of adult questions and the students were just here listening, but I understand that too because it can be very intimidating sometimes," Thomas said.

Tom Martin, Republican candidate for the State Representative of the 77th District, attended the event wearing his own campaign T-shirt.

Martin asked Specter about the federal bailout and how can Americans know the bailout will not become a trend.

Specter said, "How that's going to work out, I do not know. There are limits to what the government can do. There are limits to what the American tax payer will take."