The College Fix

MADISON, Wis. – “It’s more important that we advance knowledge, than that we make females feel that they’re included,” Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Heather Mac Donald said at the University of Wisconsin-Madison last night.

“You should be included because you are the best possible candidate, not because you are the best female candidate,” she said. “Being female is not an accomplishment,” she said, making a comparison to racial preferences for admissions. She was comparing a hypothetical scenario to her being admitted into MIT to achieve gender balance despite not being skilled at math to racial preferences.

Mac Donald, a College Fix advisory board member, spoke to Professor Ananth Seshadri, director of the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy for a discussion titled “DEI on College Campuses: Underrepresentation vs. Discrimination.” The center hosted the event along with the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership.

Mac Donald spoke about the racial academic skills gap, the perils of race- and gender- based university admission and faculty hiring, and problems with American universities today.

“If you are admitting on a color-blind basis, you are not going to have anything near anything like racial proportionality,” she said.

“Nobody is saying underrepresented minorities, black and Hispanic and Native Americans should not go to college, they are saying go to college under the same conditions as everyone else,” she said.

Around 50 people attended the event. Prior to the event, Professor Seshadri shared with The Fix why it is important to have debates on controversial topics. “Civil debates are at the essence of a college education,” Professor Seshadri said via email. “Many of these controversial issues are not settled,” he said.

Students who are skeptical of Mac Donald’s views should “hear the other side and challenge those with opposing viewpoints in a civil manner.”

“I would tell students that if they don’t end up being exposed to different viewpoints, they haven’t gotten the full range of experience they need in order to graduate with a well-rounded experience and prepare them for the future,” he said.

Mac Donald is a regular commenter on Fox News, contributing editor of City Journal, and author of several books, including “The Diversity Delusion.” She writes about a range of topics, from higher education to race relations.

One student who attended the event commented, “I thought that the talk was really great. I thought that it was very bold of [the center] and both Mac Donald to hold this event on campus, given that Madison hasn’t always been friendly to these views on DEI.”

“I do think it’s really important that the University of Wisconsin Madison reaffirms that DEI should not be our standard for admitting students or hiring faculty. It should be based on merit,” she said.

The event comes at a time when DEI initiatives in higher ed are facing heightened scrutiny.

In response to recent pressures such as the Executive Order signed on Jan. 20 that ties funding to halting DEI and the “Dear Colleague Letter” released by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has reaffirmed its commitment to diversity.

UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin and Provost Charles Isbell Jr. sent a letter addressing these developments to all students, faculty and staff on Feb. 28.

It states, “As we respond to these directives and challenges, we are, and will continue to be, guided by our commitment to our mission of excellence in teaching, research and service as well as to our commitment to the values that help support that excellence.”

“These include the recognition that diversity – both diversity of identity and intellectual diversity – makes us stronger,” the administrators wrote.

When Professor Seshadri asked Mac Donald about why there has been backlash recently towards American universities, she replied: “They have cast aside their fundamental obligation to pass on the inheritance of Western Civilization with gratitude and joy, in favor of a very narrow and very questionable view of western civilization. “

“If there were still confidence that universities were living up to their highest ideals and highest mission of teaching students why they are the luckiest people in human history, to be the beneficiaries of this tsunami of creativity, then there would not be the backlash against universities.”

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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Conservative author Heather Mac Donald speaks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on March 13, 2025. Rebecca Draeger/For The College Fix.

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