UWRF faculty visit Sen. Harsdorf’s house

A group of around 15 UW-River Falls faculty and students went to State Sen. Sheila Harsdorf’s (R-River Falls) house Friday afternoon to deliver a resolution passed by Faculty Senate that opposed Governor Scott Walker’s budget repair bill.

The group, which was composed mostly of Harsdorf’s constituents, met outside of Kleinpell Fine Arts building at 2:45 p.m.

Even though the resolution was emailed to Harsdorf, and several doubted that she would be there, the consensus among the group was that they wanted Harsdorf to hear their opinions and thoughts on the bill.  This was the second time in the last several days that UWRF faculty and staff have made a concerted effort to meet with Harsdorf.

On Tuesday, around 60 faculty, students and staff from various UW schools drove to Madison to meet with Harsdorf but according to her staffers, the meeting was never scheduled.

As the group walked up the long driveway, two Pierce County deputies were parked at the top.  As they neared, the deputies, Mike Vodinelich and Andy Thoms, got out of their vehicles and gave orders that the group could not walk any farther.

Thoms said Sheriff, Nancy Hove, instructed them to keep people away from Harsdorf’s house.  Thomas then said the group could stand at the bottom of the driveway but could not go up to the door.

Some in the group retorted back that Harsdorf comes to their doors every campaign season and all they wanted to do was simply knock on her door to see if she was home.

A few minuets later, Investigator for the Pierce County Sheriffs Department Tom Bauer walked with Political Science Professor Wes Chapin to the door so he could post the resolution.