Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the former president of the Soviet Union, will speak Friday afternoon at the ARCO Forum to an audience of more than 600 in one of the most restricted events held at the Kennedy School in recent years.

More than half the tickets for the speech, which will be broadcast on closed circuit television around the University, were distributed in a lottery open to all Harvard students. "We had to turn away hundreds," said Kennedy School spokesperson Steve Singer. "Several times more than we had seats."

The remaining tickets were given to University faculty and staff, area scholars and political leaders, Singer said.

"It is the first event in years that we have been unable to make open to the public," said Singer. He said the lottery was fairer than the first-come first-serve approach used for previous ticketed speeches.

Gorbachev's speech is currently scheduled for 3 p.m., but it may begin as late as 4 p.m. as Gorbachev's schedule changes, said Singer. The building will be closed to all but ticket holders and the building will be searched before the speech, said Harvard Police Chief Paul E. Johnson.

"When any chief of state comes we have the highest level of security," said Johnson.

The location of the speech has drawn criticism from students who were denied seats.

"It's silly to insist on putting someone that famous in a place that only seats four to five hundred people," said David L. Duncan '92, who did not win one of the tickets in the lottery.

"The whole concept of putting Gorbachev in the ARCO Forum...instead of someplace like Sanders which seats 1200 is ridiculous," said Duncan. "They could just put a Kennedy School banner behind him in Sanders and that would take care of their institutional prestige," he said.

Duncan, who said he attends many Forum speeches, said that a many Forum speeches, said that a crowdedaudience had been a problem in the past, citingspeeches by Mario M. Cuomo, Walter Cronkite andthe president of the Ukraine as examples.

"The way the ARCO Forum is set up a lot ofpeople who get in can't even see the speaker," hesaid. "They're inviting them to the K-School tospeak but that doesn't justify having hundreds ofpeople miss out. The [speakers] are coming toHarvard, not just to the K-School."

But Singer said Gorbachev was coming to Harvardas part of his trip to visit presidentialinstitutions, including the Kennedy School.

"The school worked hard for a very long time tobring Gorbachev to the University and this is thebiggest place we have," Singer said.

The former premier, who is establishing afoundation in his native country, has also visitedthe Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter presidentiallibraries during his trip in the U.S. and will bevisiting the John F. Kennedy presidential libraryin Boston Friday morning.

Singer said Gorbachev was not receiving anypayment for his appearance at the Kennedy School.

The speech may be seen live over closed circuittelevision at Boylston Hall, Fairchild Hall onDivinity Avenue and at the Biology Labs. It willalso be broadcast live on the New England CableNews Network, channel 26 for Cambridge viewers