"There is no blanket policy," she says. "We try to be as sensitive to the person's needs as possible."

Because of a revision to UHS policy instituted last year, nurses will honor a student's explicit request not to contact Harvard administrators, according to after-hours care physician Donald H. Perlo '83.

"It turns out that if a student comes into Stillman and doesn't want anyone to know, that request would have to be honored," Perlo says. "We don't want the notification issue to get in the way of someone getting medical care."

Some students are never contacted about their visits to UHS.

An Eliot senior who was taken to UHS as a first-year returned to the hospital after drinking too much as a sophomore.

No College administrator contacted him after either UHS visit.

The lack of mandatory notification comes as a surprise to Yard proctors who say they rely on UHS to know whether one of their students has had a problem with alcohol.

In Selsby's six years as a proctor, he remembers only one case in which UHS did not notify him that a student was admitted.