HOUSTON -- Having sex at college is one thing. Reading and writing about it is another.

In recent years, sex magazines at elite colleges and universities have tried to tap the omnivorous sexual appetite of the student body.

Published by and for students, these provocative start-ups offer a rich but random sexual buffet: from full-on pornography to titillating personal essays that suggest much more than they reveal.

Rice University is the latest to dabble in the fringe trend. Open Magazine is the school's first student publication devoted to textual and sexual pursuits -- 68 pages of news articles, essays, photos, poems, even graphics on sex and sexuality.

"Ideally, it should be for anybody," says Rachel Solnick, sophomore and editor in chief, who put the magazine online at www.rice.edu/openmagazine. "I think it has a pretty mature tone."

Taking a holistic approach to sex, the magazine addresses some surprisingly disparate topics: from the celibacy of Buddhist monks to the evolution of the orgasm to sex education in Tennessee.

Sex magazines started arriving on university campuses within the past decade.