When Frank J. Loge steps down from the directorship of the University of California, Davis, Medical Center on Dec. 1, he will assume a new campus post tapping his expertise and experience in corporate and community relations. As special assistant to the chancellor, Loge will promote expanded partnerships with regional corporate leaders and assist with high-priority fundraising projects. "One of my long-standing goals for UC Davis is having the university more engaged in our community," said UC Davis Chancellor Larry N. Vanderhoef. "As medical center director, Frank Loge has been extraordinarily successful involving the area's foremost business people in university enterprises and partnerships. I am quite confident that, working in concert with key campus administrators and external relations professionals, he will be able to continue to do so on behalf of the entire campus." Loge announced last July that he was ready to seek new challenges after 14 years at the medical center's helm. "I'm excited about these new opportunities to truly make a difference for the campus -- to help it reach its many important and far-reaching goals," Loge said. One of Loge's first projects will be seeking corporate support for the UC Davis Center for the Arts, a $53.5 million performance complex with an 1,800-seat hall and 250-seat studio theater. The center is due to open in 2002. "Great academicians and great professional people are what make great institutions," Loge said. "And art is absolutely part of that equation. To attract the best people to the campus and to the region, we have to be able to offer the cultural environment that people want and need as part of their non-work life. The Center for the Arts will do just that. I'm very much looking forward to helping the center become a reality." Gina Kelsch, associate vice chancellor for university relations and campaign director for the Center for the Arts, said Loge would be "a clear asset to the campaign. His strong ties to the business community will bolster our efforts as we enter the corporate fundraising phase of the campaign." As medical center director, Loge strengthened the hospital's commitment to the Sacramento community and to public service, forming a hospital Leadership Council of business and civic leaders, encouraging the relocation of the flagship Shriners Hospital for Children from San Francisco to the UCDMC campus, and expanding the hospital's main plant, research facilities and medical services. "We have seen in the development of the medical center a great accomplishment," said Vanderhoef. "Through Frank's new role, I see an opportunity for the campus to similarly benefit from his expertise."