The 240 tickets available to undergraduates for Al Gore `69’s highly anticipated speech at the ARCO Forum on Thursday sold out in a matter of minutes yesterday morning.

By 7:45 a.m. 50 students were lined up outside the Science Center. Distribution began at 7:55 and all tickets were gone 15 minutes later.

Tickets were also given out at the Kennedy School, where the line started to form at 6:45 a.m. Distribution lasted less than a hour, after which 350 “overflow” tickets were also distributed for viewing the speech via closed circuit television in Kennedy School classrooms.

“I got to the Science Center at 7:45 and by then there were only 10 people in front of me, and the line moved pretty fast once they opened,” said Efrain G. Guerrero ’04. “But my roommates ran out of the door 10 minutes later and were too late.”

Although the Forum space holds about 750 people, only 240 tickets were available to undergraduates since Gore will not be an official Forum speaker, but will instead appear as part of the Harvard Trade Union Program as the 2001 Jerry Wurf Memorial lecturer. Thursday’s speech will be just Gore’s second public address since he conceded the 2000 election to President George W. Bush last December.

“Tickets are not usually allocated by the school in this manner but this is not our event,” said Theresa M. House ’04, one of the heads of the Forum’s student advisory committee.

House also said that the Forum will be bringing former president Bill Clinton to Harvard on Nov. 20 and that “the IOP will have a lot more control over that event, which will most likely be held in a larger venue.”

Thursday’s event will be simulcast into House common rooms and the Science Center, said Rob F. McCarthy ’02, the IOP’s Student Advisory Council president. He said the IOP is looking into ways for students who are not able to attend the event at the Forum to be able to ask Gore questions.

Undergraduates will compose about half of the audienceon Thursday night, with organizations such as the Harvard-Radcliffe College Democrats, the Harvard Political Review, Harvard Model Congress, and WHRB already having received blocks of tickets.

The Kennedy School also received about a third of the tickets, and the rest were distributed to labor unions at Harvard.

“This is a prime example of our constant struggle for an undergraduate voice at the IOP, but recently we have been receiving a lot more help,” House said.

Bill White, director of the IOP’s Forum, said that he was very pleased with yesterday’s turnout.

“We were a little overwhelmed by the number of people that lined up so early,” White said, “and I believe part of the increased interest is due to the fact that people are looking towards government for answers in the wake of the September 11th tragedy.”

White also acknowledged that there are many disappointed students but said that he hopes they will keep trying to get tickets to future events.

“We do have plans to work with Al Gore’s office in the future to schedule more informal events specifically for undergraduates,” White said.