Keith Walton, Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury for Enforcement, will become Secretary of Columbia University effective Sept. 30, President George Rupp announced Monday.

  Walton, who will report directly to Rupp, was appointed by the Columbia Trustees on the nomination of the President, and he will serve as liaison between the University's administration and its Trustees.

  He succeeds Corinne H. Rieder, who left the university last winter to head the John Hartford Foundation.

  "Keith Walton has compiled an impressive record of accomplishment in law and government service," said Rupp.

   "Keith is joining the Columbia administration at a time when the university is both enhancing its academic programs and extending its considerable links to the community and to the City of New York. He will be a valuable addition to the Columbia family."

  As Secretary of the University, Walton will be responsible for maintaining the University Statutes, Columbia's primary code of academic and administrative procedure, as well as the Trustees' By-Laws and records of all Trustee meetings.

  The Secretary also oversees the process for selecting honorary degree recipients, and the recipients of the Medal for Excellence and the Bancroft Prize.

  "I am delighted that President Rupp and the Trustees have invited me to serve as Secretary of the University, " said Walton. "It is a privilege to become associated with the preeminent university in the greatest city in the world, a university with an enduring reputation for excellence, tolerance and understanding."

  Walton graduated with honors from Yale in 1986 and received his juris doctor degree in 1990 from the Harvard Law School, where he was managing editor of the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.