Rosenthal said he was disappointed with levels of dissatisfaction in the survey because his organization has been working hard to improve its services since 1992.

"The results are better [than 1992], but we think they should be a lot better," Rosenthal said. "I was surprised a little bit because of the great efforts that have been going on over the past couple years."

He said he attributes this year's poor results in part to misconceptions held by students about UHS services, something Rosenthal hopes to eliminate with better communication.

"One of the basic things that it tells us is when there's perceived poor care, it's frequently linked to the fact that there's not a connection with UHS and not a connection with a primary care physician," Rosenthal said. The survey showed just 15 percent of students were aware of the existence of the patient advocate, who represents patients' concerns, and just 25 percent were aware of the Health Resource Center.

But Rosenthal said 1,275 members of the class of 2003 have selected a primary care physician--a dramatic increase over previous years--and he hopes this jump will translate into increased familiarity with the organization and its services.

Yesterday, while campus officials embraced UHS' efforts to deal with student concerns and commended their openness in releasing the survey results, they also acknowledged students' concerns are still significant.

"The results must be taken seriously, and I believe are being acted upon in a responsible way by UHS," Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 wrote in an e-mail message. "One of the most important things, I think, is for good paths of communication to continue to be developed directly between students and UHS."