The topic was sex. The two MIT women told all--in lurid detail. They named all--over 30 of their bed mates.

And when the article they wrote in an MIT newspaper appeared, it sparked a heated campus-wide controversy over sex at MIT, freedom of the press and possible reprisals against the newspaper and the two women students.

'Best Effort'

Roxanne Ritchie and her roommate Susan Gilbert--both MIT juniors--published a "Consumer Guide to MIT Men" in the April 28 issue of Thursday, an alternative MIT weekly, in which they rated 36 MIT male students on their sexual performance.

The men's names were set next to explicit descriptions of their sexual abilities and evaluations using a "four-star" rating system. Specific references were made to size of genitalia, methods and personal hygiene.

Descriptions like "long, slow harmonic motion" and "a little scrawny but innovative and skillful" were among the tamer of the remarks.

MIT President Jerome B. Wiesner said in a statement last week that the article has prompted the university to "review the status of Thursday as a recognized student activity" and possibly to "revoke the 6