Meet Provost Scholz

Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

John Karl Scholz, the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is the chief operating officer of the university and deputy to the chancellor in the overall academic leadership and administrative management of the university. The provost acts as the chief executive officer of the institution in the chancellor’s absence.

Primary responsibilities of the position include oversight of all academic program and budget planning involving 12 schools and colleges; faculty and staff development, and personnel matters; as well as, oversight of the following areas: enrollment management, including undergraduate recruitment and admissions, student financial aid, and registrar; teaching and learning; diversity and inclusion; outreach, extension and public media; information technology (in collaboration with the vice chancellor for finance and administration); libraries; and international affairs.

The provost also oversees a number of specific units and programs including Academic Planning and Institutional Research, the Office of Strategic Consulting, the Ombuds Office, the Chazen Museum of Art, the Division of the Arts, the Global Health Initiative, the Office of Sustainability (in collaboration with the vice chancellor for finance and administration), the Wisconsin Idea Seminar, the UW Press and academic administrative searches.

Major initiatives of the Office of the Provost include the reincorporation of Cooperative Extension and Wisconsin Public Media into UW-Madison, efforts to increase need-based scholarship aid and assistance for first-generation students (Badger Promise and Bucky’s Tuition Promise), the faculty Cluster Hiring Initiative and Target of Opportunity hiring, as well as the Cybersecurity Initiative and the Educational Innovation (EI) Initiative.

Provost John Karl Scholz

Scholz began serving as provost in August 2019 after six years as the dean of the College of Letters & Science at UW–Madison. Prior to this, Scholz was the Nellie June Gray Professor of Economic Policy in the Department of Economics, which he joined in 1988.

From 1997-98, Scholz was the deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis at the U.S. Treasury Department, and from 1990-91 he was a senior staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisors. Scholz proceeded to direct the Institute for Research on Poverty at UW–Madison from 2000-2004.

Professor Scholz writes on diverse topics including household saving, the earned income tax credit and low-wage labor markets, financial barriers to higher education, and bankruptcy laws. His research has appeared in leading economics journals, including The American Economic Review, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Political Economy and the Review of Economic Studies.