Floor 16 of the Capstone Residence Hall is known as the "howdy-do" floor. According to resident Lauren Crank, this floor is "different" from the rest of Capstone.
Crank, a first-year public relations student, said that this group of 38 students is known as the "goofballs" of the residence hall, and that they're extremely close.
One of the most important memories the members of floor 16 have was the day their resident mentor, Jason Thomas, took them to the Horseshoe at midnight before classes started. He encouraged them to talk about their personal lives, which they did for three hours.
"[Jason] told us that if we wanted to make our own connections, we had to do it ourselves. He gave us the tools to grow," Crank said. "We all cried together, these strangers. And then we were able to hug it out, and we were all so much closer."
From that night on, the hall had a reputation throughout Capstone as being particularly tight-knit. They began to call Thomas "dad."
"He’s always here for us. He brought us together, which is why we love him so much," Crank said. "He's literally one of us."
According to Crank, Thomas would sit in residents' rooms and fall asleep on their couches. She fondly remembers Thomas buying them different types of food, everything from Cook-Out to Insomnia Cookies to Moe's.
Almost every week, they held the "howdy-do" ceremony, where awards were given to residents for doing the silliest or craziest things that week. The title of "gem of the week," given to the resident who has performed the sweetest action that week, was also up for grabs.
Although Thomas became good friends with his residents, he was busy with his other activities. Thomas said that he "struggled with a lot of stuff on the administrative side" of being a resident mentor. He was late to staff meetings and duty assignments, and he sometimes missed other deadlines set by the resident life coordinator of Capstone.
Thomas said that "the little things" eventually piled up. His boss took administrative action each time, until he was told that he would no longer serve as a resident mentor.
"My floor and I [are] very connected. We’re sort of a family. So when we heard that Jason was leaving us we were all very upset and speechless, really," Crank said, reflecting on the Thursday night she and her hall mates discovered their resident mentor was leaving. "I couldn’t envision myself with a better RM if I tried."
After sharing the news with his residents, Thomas decided that he would appeal his boss' decision.
"The only reason I decided to appeal was because the floor asked me to and was so upset about it," Thomas said. "They were kind of dead set, and I saw how affected they were and I saw how worried they were."
With only a few days before Thomas's appeals meeting on Monday, the floor banded together and took action.
They created a "Save Jason Thomas!" petition on Change.org, which received 681 signatures in a period of three days.
"Help Capstone's Residence Life Coordinator see that passion is more important than punctuality!" the petition reads. "Jason Thomas is an integral part of daily life at USC's Capstone Residence Hall. As floor sixteen's Resident Mentor, Jason regularly interacts with all students residing in the building, and he is an irreplaceable peer leader to the kids living on his floor."
They created Twitter and Instagram accounts for the cause, and made #SaveJT trending on Twitter. They were up until 4 a.m. one night hanging posters throughout the residence hall.
The Twitter page, @SaveSixteen16, has pictures and posts about how Thomas had connected with the hall, such as Thomas coaching the hall's flag football team or having a "heart 2 heart" with one of the residents.
"Jason not only took us to the fair, but he won us a minion!," one post reads. "Would your RM do that for you?"
The 38 residents of Thomas' hall also connected with his former residents and wrote letters for him to take to his appeals meeting. Thomas was able to show Keith Ellis, who has in charge of Thomas' appeals process, 50 letters.
"It was overwhelming and very humbling. It was kind of like a roller coaster," Thomas said. "Obviously it was hard getting fired, but if you told me a week before that I was going to get fired and get to see all of that support and all of them come together, I would have taken it ten times out of ten."
Thomas decided to be a resident mentor because he wanted to give freshmen the experience of a close hall community that he felt he never had. Through the appeals process, Thomas realized he had accomplished his goal.
"The gift they gave me was that they showed me I had achieved that," Thomas said. "I realized I had accomplished what I had set out to, and that was very, very humbling."
Thomas' appeal was accepted, and he was given back his position under probation. Crank said that she thinks the result would have been different without their efforts.
"It was really fun, seeing if we could do this," Crank said. "It was really suspenseful, and it was also really amazing to see ‘wow, you can do all of this with the click of a few buttons.’"
Although Thomas has made a personal decision not to return as a resident mentor next semester, he has been amazed by the actions his residents took.
"It’s crazy to see how much of an impact they can have because they came together. For first-semester freshmen to come in and do this, I think, is amazing," Thomas said. "I think the good thing for our university is that if there are students like this at this university, they are going to accomplish great things."
University Housing would not comment on Thomas' appeals process.