22 emails urged UT-Austin to name Bo French after 35-hour wait

UT-Austin President Jim Davis received at least 22 emails regarding a viral social media post before issuing a public response. The messages arrived after a 35-hour delay following a comment by Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas railroad commissioner.

The delay began on the morning of September 13. French posted an image of South Asian students celebrating a football victory. He wrote on X that the problem was now obviously far worse than anyone imagined. The post targeted the university's international student population.

UT officials monitored the backlash but did not immediately comment. Patrick Wiseman, the university's vice president for marketing and communications, told colleagues in a Microsoft Teams message that no comment was needed. He noted that French was already getting crushed by others and that the university should not stoop to these politics.

Students and alumni pressed for a stronger reaction. One law student wrote that the silence was getting a bit loud. Rohan Reddy Gupta, a 2020 graduate, described silence in the face of bigotry as complicity. He argued that a public condemnation was a moral obligation rather than an option.

On September 15 at 6:46 p.m., Davis reposted a statement by UT System Board Chair Kevin Eltife. Eltife said he was proud to celebrate all Longhorn students. Davis added that he was proud to stand with Eltife and that all students were Longhorns. Neither leader named French or used the word racist.

The university's response drew criticism from former students and experts. Greg Rives, a 1998 graduate, said Davis fumbled by not calling for a public apology. Brian Soucek, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, called the response an example of universities being utterly cowardly. He noted that the system's neutrality policy could have constrained the leadership, though it is unclear if that rule influenced the decision.

Davis later addressed offensive speech in a message to students on October 16. He told students not to take the bait of outsiders seeking to provoke them. Three computer science professors sent a separate email expressing support for students regardless of ethnicity. They noted that some students feared attending future football games after French's post.