Move over, Harvard: Students at Boston University may have their own sex magazine by early next year -- and this time, the editor doesn't mind if you call it pornography.
Less than six months after the controversial H Bomb magazine hit mailboxes at Harvard, complete with artsy nude photographs, a BU journalism major has announced plans for Boink, a glossy magazine that will feature nude photos of students and articles about sex. The 96-page debut issue is planned for January.
"Sex is such a huge part of college life, it's something we need to address," said Alecia Oleyourryk, 20, a senior from upstate New York and the creator of Boink. "The intent isn't to stir up controversy, and we're not doing it for the attention. It's shocking that no one talks or writes about sex."
News of the magazine was first reported in the independent student newspaper, The Daily Free Press. Though Boink will operate with neither university funding nor official recognition, BU administrators yesterday made no effort to hide their displeasure.
"The University does not endorse, nor welcome, the prospective publication Boink; nor view its publication as a positive for the University community, because of our concern for the treatment of serious sexual health, relationship, and related issues," Kenneth Elmore, dean of students, said in a statement.
Boston University does not fund student publications, including the student newspaper and literary magazine, officials said. At Harvard, where publications are treated the same as other student activities, the student sex magazine was granted official recognition from the Committee on College Life, which includes students, staff, and faculty. It later received a $2,000 grant from the student government.
The first issue of the magazine is likely to cost $20,000 for 10,000 copies, according to Boston photographer Christopher Anderson, 38, who is collaborating with Oleyourryk on the project. They hope that advertising, gifts from sponsors, and sales of the magazine will cover the costs. Anderson, who kept in touch with Oleyourryk after photographing her two years ago, first approached her with the idea for the magazine after he contributed photographs of nude undergraduates to H Bomb.
"College is a time of experimentation, when everything is new, and people have a lot of misconceptions and unanswered questions," Anderson said. "Adults tend not to be comfortable talking about sex, but part of a university's job is to make students into responsible adults. If you ignore that whole subset of students' lives, that's how you end up with problems like STDs and date rape."
Unlike the editors of H Bomb, who stressed their literary and artistic mission and specified that their magazine would not be pornographic, Oleyourryk said her magazine would be pornography -- but said that doesn't have to mean something bad: "Although the word has a negative connotation, it is what you make it."
And if some Harvard alumni were apoplectic at the thought of students posing for nude photographs, however artistic, Oleyourryk said she doesn't think H Bomb went far enough.
"I think they've been cautious," she said. "It's a good jumping-off point, but there's a lot to be improved upon. We'll have a lot more pictures. We'll have full frontal nudity. . . . This will be something students can look to with real sex in it, the real grit of it, with people who look like real people."
Although the magazine will also educate readers about sexually-transmitted diseases and other serious topics, it "won't be like reading VCR instructions," she said. The name was chosen to reflect a sense of fun, after "pages" of other ideas were discarded, she said.
At least in the first issue, she said, there will be no pictures of intercourse or other sex acts. The magazine will look more like the popular men's magazine Maxim than like H Bomb, she said. While the focus will be on BU students at first, Anderson said the magazine may eventually expand its reach to other Boston campuses.
Dozens of BU students have already volunteered to pose nude, said Oleyourryk.
Asked what BU president emeritus John Silber would think of the proposed magazine, she answered fast.
"He'd hate it," she said.
Jenna Russell can be reached at jrussell@globe.com.