Aaron McGruder, J.C. Watts, Benazir Bhutto and Ann Coulter could be speaking at Penn State next year. That is, if the Distinguished Speaker Series committee can convince them.

The creator of The Boondocks comic strip, the former black Republican congressman from Oklahoma, the first woman prime minister of Pakistan and the widely syndicated conservative columnist were among the names that students tossed out last night as potential campus speakers.

The public meeting, which attracted about three dozen people to the HUB Auditorium, started the process of choosing top-name personalities to appear on campus for the 2003-04 academic year.

Brian Loretz, outgoing committee chair, fielded more than 100 names from the audience and fed them into a speakerphone on stage.

At the other end of the line was booking agent Theo Moll, who gave information on what fees speakers usually request, whether they are usually available and any past experience she has had booking them.

Authors, journalists, movie directors and actors came up frequently.

Loretz said the series committee tries to avoid repeating speakers or topics from the past five years to allow for variety.

Moll also warned that Hollywood personalities are "hot property" and often hard to secure in the months following a movie success.

Her warning didn't stop several people from suggesting -- in person and over e-mail -- the name of Michael Moore, creator of the documentary Bowling for Columbine. Moll said Moore is "irreverent" and "a little hard to work with," but goes for $15,000 to $20,000 an appearance.

Bill O'Reilly of Fox News attracts $60,000 these days, but has been known to cancel his speaking engagements, Moll said.

"They just can't get away midweek," the booking agent said of O'Reilly and NPR hosts, such as Ira Glass, who were suggested.

Former Green Party candidate Winona LaDuke, comedian Margaret Cho, and author Al Franken were recommended by Moll as good choices to pursue.

Some names elicited strong reactions from the booking agent.

Jason Covener (nondegree) suggested Hunter S. Thompson, but Moll said the writer has been "completely unprofessional on campus."

"You can imagine the kind of behavior," she added.

Of former TV host Bill Maher, Moll said: "I have found him to be so unpleasant to work with. He is nasty."

The name of linguist Noam Chomsky brought forth some applause. Moll said he usually asks for about $12,000, but needs to work around his busy teaching schedule.

When Newt Gingrich was suggested, Assata Richards (graduate-sociology) called out two other names: Trent Lott and David Duke.

Some audience members expressed their surprise at Bill Cosby's regular fee of $100,000.

A few dozen personalities -- mostly authors -- stumped the booking agent.

"I hate coming up empty on these names," Moll said.

But Loretz said the committee is keeping track of all suggestions, even if Moll didn't recognize them, and would continue to accept students' ideas via e-mail (loretz@psu.edu).

The Distinguished Speaker Series requests money from the student activity fee through the University Park Allocation Committee, and the amount varies each year, Loretz said.

This school year, the series received $160,000. Attendance at the four recent speeches totaled about 6,000, with one more speaker still to come in April, he said. That figure is down from 12,000 people who watched seven speeches in 2001-02.