By Riona Kadam

On September 12, after Texas’ football victory over Ohio State, a photo of South Asian students celebrating the win at the University of Texas at Austin became the center of a broader political conversation. Bo French, the Republican candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission, shared the photo on X while criticizing UT’s enrollment practices. In the post, French asked, “How many Americans have been displaced by foreigners.”

The statement drew attention not only because it referenced university enrollment and immigration, but because the photograph itself provided no information about the students’ citizenship or immigration status. The students pictured were characterized as “foreigners” based on a photograph of them celebrating a UT football victory.

The conversation is particularly relevant on the Forty Acres because international students are an established part of the UT community. For the 2025–26 academic year, UT reported that 80.5% of its students were Texas residents, another 10.2% came from elsewhere in the United States, and 9.3% were international students. Texas Global, which uses a broader definition of international enrollment, reports 6,877 international students representing 134 countries. 

Those 6,800-plus students represent individuals who have chosen to pursue an education thousands of miles from their homes, communities and, for many, their families. They come to Austin because they see value in a Texas education and bring their own experiences and perspectives with them. At the same time, it is important to distinguish international students from South Asian American students. A student’s race or ethnicity tells us nothing about whether they were born in Texas, grew up elsewhere in the United States, recently moved to the country or came to UT as an international student.

For South Asian American, immigrant and international students, rhetoric that associates someone’s appearance with foreignness can feel discriminatory and exclusionary. More importantly, a student’s background should not make their place at UT feel any less legitimate. Every Longhorn arrived on the Forty Acres through the university’s established admissions and enrollment processes, and nationality, race or ethnicity does not make one student’s place in the UT community more valuable than another’s.

And, at the end of the day, being a Longhorn is defined by far more familiar things. If you’re a student who pays thousands of dollars in tuition, goes to class alongside everyone else, studies for the same exams and opens what feels like 6,789,876 tabs just to claim a football ticket, you’re a Longhorn. Whether you came to Austin from somewhere else in Texas, across the country or across the world, you are part of this community. 

As Texas Sweethearts, our organization is rooted in supporting UT and the community that makes the Forty Acres what it is. Our campus brings together Longhorns with different backgrounds, cultures and experiences, and every student should be able to celebrate their university without having their belonging questioned because of what they look like.