Bo French, a Republican candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission, posted a tweet that singled out Indian‑origin students at UT‑Austin, describing them in demeaning terms and suggesting they were a threat to the campus community.
Within hours, 22 emails flooded President Jim Davis’s office, demanding a public condemnation; student activists drafted a resolution condemning French’s remarks and calling for institutional accountability.
Three Indian‑origin computer‑science professors—Keshav Pingali, Vijay Chidambaram and Chandrajit Bajaj—wrote an email to students offering support, noting rising hostility toward South Asian students and urging the university to act.
President Jim Davis issued a statement that all UT students are Longhorns, but it omitted any reference to race or the offending tweet; the response was dismissed by the student body as a mere platitude.
Dean Young and a bipartisan group of eleven student representatives drafted a resolution condemning French, but faculty adviser Jennifer Zamora directed them to exclude any mention of the political candidate, citing campus policy on political speech.
The resolution is now on hold while the university reviews its policy conflict, and students are calling for a formal apology; a faculty meeting is scheduled to address broader campus inclusivity concerns.