🏫 UW cuts office supporting equity and inclusion

🚨 It’s Last Call for Downtown Bar Raids

• It’s been a tradition at the start of every semester at UW-Madison — a highly-publicized raid by Madison police on a campus bar that leads to dozens of citations for underage drinking. But those mass untargeted raids are over, said District 8 Alder MGR Govindarajan.
• Govindarajan said he raised concerns with new Madison Police Chief John Patterson that such “bar checks” aren’t particularly productive. He said Patterson agreed, and there have been no such untargeted raids so far this semester, although police will still respond to specific complaints.
• 🎧 More from the chief: Patterson talked recently on the City Cast Madison podcast about his long history with the department and his priorities as Madison’s new top cop. [Daily Cardinal, 🎧 City Cast Madison]

🏫 UW Cuts Dept. of Equity, Inclusion and Employee Wellbeing

• A UW-Madison department devoted to retaining and supporting people of color and LGBTQ+ people among university faculty and staff has been eliminated. A UW spokesperson said several of the programs in the Department of Equity, Inclusion and Employee Wellbeing are already being done by other campus offices.
• In April, the university ended informal monthly gatherings for people of color on campus that the department had coordinated. The department currently has only two employees, and the spokesperson declined to say whether they would be laid off or reassigned elsewhere.
• The Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funding from universities organizations that prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion. [Madison365]

🧑‍🍳 Sardine Chefs Plan New Restaurant on Lakeside Street

• John Gadau and Phillip Hurley, the chefs behind Sardine and Gates & Brovi, are in the early planning stages of opening a new restaurant on Lakeside Street.
• The restaurant would be in the building that currently houses Cronometro Bicycles near Lakeside Street Coffee House. Hurley said the pair is still developing the concept for the new spot. [Isthmus]

It’s fall migration season! Which means it’s a great time to get outside and see off millions of Wisconsin birds as they head south for the winter. Migration started in late August and will run into November, but ornithologists say the peak migration season is late October.

On the City Cast Madison podcast today, host Bianca Martin chatted with Dexter Patterson, a UW-Madison educator who founded the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin, about his new book on birding, “Birds of the Great Lakes.” Patterson will talk about the book on Oct. 26 at the Wisconsin Book Festival, and attendees will get a free copy of the book!

Here’s some tips on where and when to go to peep some birds during the fall, and how you can help them get where they’re going:

Where To Go

Wisconsin is home to over 300 birding hotspots, and devoted birders travel to major locations such as Horicon Marsh, where some 300 species have been seen, or to Wyalusing State Park where the Mississippi River and the Wisconsin River meet.

But you don’t have to go that far to enjoy birding. Walk along Lake Mendota on the Lakeshore Nature Preserve Trail to Picnic Point and check out birds on both land and water. Or stroll through 17 miles of trails in the UW-Madison Arboretum. Head out to Pheasant Branch Conservatory on the northwest shore of Lake Mendota to enjoy the birds that call the pristine wetland home.

When They Migrate

Migrating birds are hard to spot in the air, because they like to fly at night. Migrating birds typically start taking flight around 30 to 45 minutes after sunset, with the greatest number in the air about two to three hours after sunset. So you’ll have more luck seeing them in the daytime when they stop to refuel and rest.