Armstrong said he will begin the new role Feb. 1, 2011.

As president of a university that focuses on agriculture and business — much like MSU — his first goal is to listen, learn and get people behind a strategic plan and direction to move forward, Armstrong said.

In a press release, California State University Trustee Roberta Achtenberg said Armstrong’s credentials and leadership at MSU “will be tremendous assets to the university.”

“His reputation for teaching excellence and commitment to student-centered learning are the right complements to Cal Poly’s learn-by-doing philosophy,” she said in the release.

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said in a statement Armstrong “has been a steady force for progress during his decade” as dean and looks forward to working with him as a colleague and partner.

“The complex and often technical challenges we as a society face today require the kind of disciplined, integrated approach to scholarship, engagement and management that Jeff Armstrong represents,” she said in a statement.

Although officials at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources plan to restructure its operations by morphing 13 academic departments into eight and cutting 25 percent of faculty as early as July 2011, Armstrong is committed to assisting MSU in moving forward with necessary changes, he said.

“There’s never a good time to depart, but there is more than one leader to a college,” Armstrong said. “I know (Provost Kim Wilcox) will work with the faculty and have the leadership to select a new dean and move forward. Up until that date (of February 1), I’ll be 100 percent green and white.”