Occupy Charlottesville will pack up their tents and move to George Rogers Clark Park after its permit expires tonight at 6. Some protesters will stay at Lee Park and could be arrested for violating the 11 p.m. curfew. Photo by Thomas Bynum

Occupy Charlottesville protesters decided at a general assembly meeting last night to move from their location in Lee Park to George Rogers Clark Park. The decision followed three hours of discussion about five alternate locations, including Monticello, which were ultimately dismissed for strategic reasons.

The group chose George Rogers Clark Park, which is located across from the Red Roof Inn on West Main Street, because it fulfilled a number of desirable criteria, particularly its proximity to the “elitist” University. The group also noted the park’s accessibility to foot and vehicular traffic and its high visibility to the Charlottesville community as advantages.

Although the group has been occupying Lee Park since mid-October, the termination of its 30-day permit pushed it to consider relocation. The permit, granted to occupiers by Charlottesville City Council, officially ends tonight at 6.

Occupiers maintain that their message and movement will remain strong despite the termination of the permit. Several members voiced their plans to openly accept arrest by continuing to occupy Lee Park after the permit expires. Other members agreed to support the protesters who will stay in Lee Park, but did not agree on how they would do so.

City spokesperson Ric Barrick noted the City’s concerns with the movement’s prolonged occupation of Lee Park.

“Because the current protest is in what is considered a neighborhood park, with the unique concerns of the adjacent residences and businesses, City Council directed staff to look at some alternatives that would not conflict with the protesters’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech,” Barrick said in an email.

Barrick explained that City officials believed the most suitable location would be the eastern side of McIntire Park, with parking and visibility from a highly traveled road.

After briefly considering taking to McIntire Park, occupiers dismissed the idea because they were hesitant to accept a choice “handed” to them by City Council.

Occupier and University alumnus Zac Fabian said relocation of the movement would do little to quash the message or continued activity of the group.

“Occupy Charlottesville will continue,” he said. “The important thing is not the physical space. It is the connection, the community that we created.”

If they are unable to occupy George Rogers Clark Park, the group members will relocate to the Free Speech Wall in front of City Hall.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cucinelli’s lawsuit argues that President Obama’s health care plan is unconstitutional and conflicts with the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act. Photo by Edric San Miguel

The Supreme Court has delayed its decision on whether it will hear Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s case arguing that President Obama’s health care plan is unconstitutional.

In his lawsuit, Cuccinelli claims that Obama’s health care bill, signed into law in March 2010, conflicts with the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act, which prohibits the government from requiring citizens to purchase health insurance.

The case was scheduled to be considered by the court at a Nov. 22 scheduling conference. In orders issued by the court Monday, however, there was no mention of the state’s case.

“The court has not yet taken any definitive action on our case,” Cuccinelli spokesperson Brian Gottstein said in an email. “It could do so in the future, or it may not. We cannot speculate. We will just wait and see what it has to say.”

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has also challenged Obama’s health care plan, joining with 25 other states, a business group and two individuals to argue that personal health insurance is not within the scope of governmental regulation.

Cuccinelli’s suit is not part of the multi-state appeal.

Assoc. Law Prof. Leslie Kendrick said although the court’s actions could have a few possible meanings, “The most likely [scenario] is that [the court] is holding the case until the disposition of the Florida case … Because both cases raise the issue of the constitutionality of the act … they may decide to hear one of these cases and hold onto the other.”

In this situation, the Supreme Court essentially would send the Virginia case back to the lower courts to render a decision in accordance with the high court’s decision on the Florida case.

Kendrick described the court’s action as “pretty standard protocol.”

“Even if they don’t want to hear [Virginia’s] case, it’s completely natural to hold it until after the Florida case,” she said.

The national averages, above, show that students of the Class of 2008 had a graduation rate of 38.9 percent for four years and 61.2 percent for six years. The University had higher averages of 85 and 93 percent, respectively. Photo courtesy Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA

Colleges and universities could more accurately predict their graduation rates by developing a better understanding of the students who enroll, according to a report released yesterday from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The study, “Completing College: Assessing Graduation Rates at Four-Year Institutions,” compares expected graduation rates at four-year institutions with actual rates.

It matched data from the 2004 Freshman Survey by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program with the graduation numbers for that class to “see what the graduation trajectory was, … the records of whether [those students] graduated, and where they went,” said Linda DeAngelo, assistant director for research for CIRP. “You need to look at more than relative rates between colleges in order to see who’s really doing well with the students they serve, because they may have very different types of students.”

The study found that colleges and universities can increase the accuracy with which they predict four-year and six-year graduation rates by 66 and 53 percent, respectively, through looking at specific student characteristics. Rather than merely looking at factors such as gender, race and ethnicity, and SAT/ACT scores, the study instead considered students’ ratings of their personal health, whether they plan to work full-time to support themselves while in school and how they selected their school.

Most colleges do not take into account predicted graduation rates, DeAngelo said, but doing so could help universities improve their retention and actual graduation rate.

She was concerned with the gaps found in graduation rates between groups of students. Twenty-seven percent of first-generation college students earn a degree in four years, compared to 42 percent of those whose parents have college degrees.

“We’re not graduating less students [than in the past], but we have a lot of work to do and we definitely need to address these attainment gaps and create conditions of success for all students,” she said.

Expected graduation rates are not widely used figures at the University. “We don’t normally calculate an expected graduation rate,” George Stovall, director of institutional assessment and studies at the University, said in an email.

This may be because of the high graduation rate at the University. For the students who entered the University in fall 2002, the four-year graduation rate was 84.8 percent and the six-year graduation rate was 92.9 percent. The study reported national averages, finding that the four-year graduation rate was 38.9 percent and the six-year rate was 61.2 percent.

The University student who collided with a vehicle while riding his bicycle Nov. 14 is no longer in critical condition, Charlottesville Police Lt. Ronnie Roberts said yesterday.

“He is improving but I’m sure he has a long trip to recovery right now,” he said.

Witnesses were interviewed the morning after the incident and the Charlottesville Police Department presented the interviews to the Commonwealth’s Attorney about a week later, Roberts said.

The police have completed their investigation, but Roberts could not comment on the witness statements.

­­—compiled by Greg Lewis

Freshman guard Malcolm Brogdon turned in a performance well beyond his years against Michigan. Brogdon helped Virginia post the ACC’s first win in the 2011 Big Ten/ACC challenge with a career-high 16 points, five rebounds and one assist in 24 minutes. Photo by Scott Miles

With Cavalier hoops legend Ralph Sampson cheering alongside more than 10,500 fans at John Paul Jones Arena, the Virginia men’s basketball team helped the ACC draw first blood in the 13th installment of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge.

Freshman guard Malcolm Brogdon posted a career-best 16 points and senior forward Mike Scott paced the Cavaliers with 18 points and 11 rebounds as Virginia outmuscled No. 14 Michigan, 70-58.

Although the Wolverines (5-2) claimed third place in the highly competitive Maui Invitational — and knocked off then-No. 8 Memphis and UCLA in the process — oddsmakers favored Virginia (6-1) by 3.5 points at tip-off. They appeared woefully off-base, however, as the Cavaliers’ offensive pulse remained at a critically low level for much of the first half.

Junior guard Sammy Zeglinski opened Virginia’s scoring account after corralling a rebound, saving the ball from going out of bounds and then draining a transition trey, but Virginia shooters failed to find their rhythm against the Michigan zone defense and stumbled to just nine points during the game’s first 10 minutes.

“I thought we were getting some pretty good looks, we just didn’t knock them down,” Zeglinski said. “I was struggling on my shot a little bit, and so was [sophomore guard] Joe [Harris].”

During a first-half TV timeout, the Virginia dance team’s performance to Michael Jackson’s “Bad” proved ironically fitting, as the “King of Pop’s” lyrics perfectly described the Cavaliers’ paltry offensive output.

With star sophomore shooting guard Tim Hardaway, Jr. sidelined with foul trouble, however, the Wolverines similarly struggled. Michigan managed only eight first-half field goals but did just enough behind senior guard Zack Novak’s eight first-half points to take a 19-14 lead with 3:21 left before halftime.

The teams traded misses before Harris suddenly and single-handedly broke Virginia’s 4-of-20 slump from the field and jolted the dormant John Paul Johns Arena crowd back to life with a three-point bomb. Harris then stole the ball and poured in two more free throws to even the score at 19 apiece with less than two minutes remaining.

An airball at the charity stripe by Michigan redshirt sophomore forward Jordan Morgan sustained the frenzied Virginia fans, and a Zeglinski three and Brogdon lay-in helped Virginia close the half on a 10-4 run and take an improbable 24-23 lead into the break.

Virginia coach Tony Bennett’s locker room message preached that his players’ continued trust in their shooting touch would open up the game as both teams tired. His words proved prescient as the two previously impotent offenses — perhaps inspired by a halftime ceremony retiring Sampson’s iconic number 50 jersey and the 2,228 points which went with it — engaged in a back-and-forth scoring spree for most of the second half.

Michigan jumped out to a five-point lead, but Harris nailed a jumper as Virginia closed to 39-36. A layup and three-pointer from Brogdon then bookended two points from Novak to tie the score at 41 with 11:30 remaining.

“We had [Brogdon] as the seventh guy that we had to worry about on this team and he was excellent today,” Michigan coach Jim Beilein said. “He’s a tough, hardnosed kid and he played well.”

The Cavaliers rode their newfound scoring touch, a heavy dose of Bennett’s stifling pack-line defense and the raucous home crowd to two consecutive baskets by Scott to force Beilein to take a timeout with the worried Wolverines trailing 45-41 with about nine minutes remaining.

“I thought in the second half we limited them to one-and-done, and they had to go late in the shot clock,” Bennett said. “They’re a very potent offensive team … I thought the guys really started battling and making them shoot those contested shots, and then coming back and rebounding.”

Virginia continued to feed Scott’s hot hand and the senior big man didn’t disappoint, quickly drawing a foul and then sending an eagle-eye pass cross-court to Brogdon, who swished the wide-open three. Scott then stretched the Cavaliers’ lead to nine on a jumper with 7:25 remaining, forcing another Beilein timeout to stop the carnage.

“We tried to really get Mike [Scott] touches,” Bennett said. “The times he didn’t score, he got some kick-outs, and that’s when some guys hit some big shots … He’s a good passer out of there, so if you decide to come at him, he usually finds some holes.”

The temporary respite didn’t re-awaken Michigan and it certainly didn’t hinder the Cavaliers’ co-top scorer Harris, who rebounded a Hardaway miss and then immediately cocked and converted a three-pointer off a Zeglinski helper for a 53-41 advantage.

Virginia’s suffocating defense held Michigan scoreless for nearly six and a half minutes as the Wolverines missed eight consecutive shots from the floor. Michigan crawled to within seven behind a Hardaway jumper and a trey by senior guard Stu Douglass, but then Virginia’s snipers hit their mark on consecutive shots. Brogdon made no mistake when senior center Assane Sene snared an offensive board off the freshman’s initial try from deep, and Harris sank his third deep ball of the game to stretch Virginia’s lead to 59-46 with just under four minutes remaining.

“We were getting some good looks, even early,” Bennett said. “When they’d score, they’d run their one-three-one zone and guys were getting the rhythm looks. You’ve got to take them and shoot them with confidence. It can be contagious.”

In a similar and now infamous late-game situation last season, Virginia led Miami by double digits with a mere minute remaining in the first round of the ACC Tournament. The Cavaliers failed to close the game out, however, and instead panicked, crumbled and gift-wrapped a stunning 69-62 comeback victory for the Hurricanes.

Last night, in another primetime game and against an even more dangerous opponent, however, the Cavaliers played intelligent and composed basketball during the game’s final minutes. It was instead the ranked Wolverines who tossed up numerous three-point prayers, rushed their offensive possessions and saw their top-dog scorer, Hardaway, held to just five points on 2-of-9 shooting from the floor.

Although Bennett wasn’t smiling after Brogdon, Scott and Evans all split trips to the charity stripe in the waning minutes, Virginia hit enough free throws late to keep any potential Michigan magic at bay. Then-injured Mike Scott wasn’t on the court for the disastrous Miami defeat, but the senior remembered enough to forgo a wide-open layup for the chance to burn a few more seconds off the clock.

It was just one win, but in besting Beilein’s Wolverines, Scott and the Cavaliers appear to have taken a big step toward washing away the bitter taste of their 2010 end and cementing a promising identity for the rest of this young season.

“One game doesn’t make a season,” Bennett said. “We’ll certainly grow from it and be confident from it. I kept telling them, ‘Our principles are humility and passion.’ Humility … Know your identity out there. And play your heart out — passion … I think that’s going to be the key for our team.”

During just his second season at the helm of the Virginia football team, coach Mike London has already orchestrated the fifth-best single-season turnaround in the country and clinched the program’s first winning record and bowl game since 2007. Now London can add ACC Football Coach of the Year honors to his growing list of accolades.

When the conference announced the award yesterday, London joined Bill Elias, George Blackburn, two-time winner Al Groh and four-time winner George Welsh as Virginia head coaches to earn the honor.

After posting a 4-8 record during his inaugural 2010 season at Virginia, London led the Cavaliers (8-4, 5-3 ACC) to a second-place finish in the ACC Coastal Division this season. Virginia still awaits word on its postseason destination, but with a late-December bowl victory, London can tie Groh’s 2007 team for the program’s best record since Welsh went 9-3 in 1998.

As head coach at Richmond, his alma mater, London also won the 2008 FCS National Coach of the Year award of both the American Football Coaches Association and Schutt Sports/American Monthly magazine after leading the Spiders to a 13-3 record and the FCS National Championship during the 2008 season.

London has three years remaining on a five-year, $1.7 million per year contract signed when he replaced Groh for the 2010 season.

—compiled by Matt Welsh

Former Virginia coach Debbie Ryan and guard Monica Wright were a formidable force, but the current Cavalier team appears equally dangerous. Photo courtesy Virginia Athletics

When the Virginia women’s basketball team stormed into Knoxville in 2008 and took down two-time defending champion Tennessee, 83-82, the Cavaliers were no secret.

They were ranked 16th and were fresh off a 24-win season in which they advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

They were led by a legendary duo of Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Debbie Ryan, who was in her 32nd year coaching the Cavaliers, and then-junior guard Monica Wright. Wright would set the program’s all-time single-season scoring record that year with 696 points, a record which stood until Wright eclipsed that mark the following season with 734 points.

When Wright went off for a then-career-high 35 points against the Lady Volunteers to topple one of the marquee programs in women’s college basketball, the result was no stunner. Virginia’s win was an upset, nothing more.

But when Tennessee paid a visit to Charlottesville Nov. 20, there was no Wright and no Ryan — just a team in a “transition” year with a new coach at the helm, pegged to finish eighth in the ACC and led by a band of role players but no true go-to scorer.

Perhaps coach Joanne Boyle’s scrappy team could play shutdown zone defense against unranked opponents, but up against preseason All-American senior guard Shekinna Stricklen and senior forward Glory Johnson — both likely first-round picks in the 2012 WNBA draft — and freshman prodigy guard Ariel Massengale, Virginia would surely succumb to the myriad offensive options the Lady Volunteers would throw at them. Or so it seemed to every objective observer outside the Cavalier locker room.

“Everybody in that locker room believed we could win that game,” Boyle said. “That’s no disrespect to Tennessee; they’re an unbelievable program. But, the way you build a program is to put belief and trust in each other, and that’s what this team has done.”

Virginia stunned No. 3 Tennessee, 69-64, in overtime with a gutsy performance from start to finish. Stunned would apply not only to the college basketball pundits but also to the Lady Volunteers’ demeanor as the Cavaliers made key plays down the stretch while one of the nation’s most talented and experienced teams faltered and fumbled away its opportunities.

Crucial to Virginia’s win were the 24 turnovers it forced, which translated into 27 points. “That’s hard to overcome,” Tennessee associate coach Holly Warlick said of the turnovers. “But I think a lot of that had to do with Virginia and what they were doing defensively, so give them the credit.”

With each passing second, the Cavaliers traded initial jitters for confidence bordering on cockiness as several players repeatedly waved their arms to pump up a crowd of 6,450. Junior guard Lexie Gerson ignited the Cavaliers off the bench with eight points, including a pair of three-pointers to help Virginia keep pace with Tennessee and head into the break tied at 29 apiece.

Sophomore forward Jazmin Pitts came off the bench in the second half to cap a 13-4 run out of the break and give the Cavaliers their largest lead of the game at 42-33. From there, Virginia turned to the only two players on their roster with personal experience in taking down Tennessee. Senior guard Ariana Moorer notched a double-double and senior forward Chelsea Shine scored 18 points and pulled down nine rebounds to earn ACC Player of the Week honors. Along with junior guard China Crosby, the trio scored the team’s final 22 points in regulation and overtime.

“I thought their team had a lot of energy and a lot of confidence,” Warlick said. “I think through [Boyle], they had a great game plan and the team did what she asked them to do. I don’t think they got rattled. It was a great win for them and those kids deserve a lot of credit; they played hard and when they needed buckets, they hit baskets, and when they needed stops, they did that as well.”

After Crosby dribbled out the final four seconds, she launched the ball up toward the rafters in celebration.

If the Cavaliers’ 2008 victory was an upset, 2011 was a miracle. The win gave Virginia its first 4-0 start since 1997, its first win against a top-three opponent since 2000 and a spot in the national rankings at No. 22.

Virginia players have embraced the underdog role, using it as motivation to meet Boyle’s demand for focus and intensity during every practice. Now the question is whether the team’s national notoriety will reinforce that work ethic or lead to a more complacent group which no longer plays with a chip on its shoulder.

“This win just goes to show that the hard work and the program [and] what we’re buying into is worth it and it’s real,” Shine said. “Everybody on this team is totally sold on what the coaches are trying to do here. With every game, watching our zone defense grow and become more tenacious like that makes us believe more and more in each other.”

A trip to Hawaii may not have been the best prescription for combatting complacency. During Thanksgiving Break, the Cavaliers traveled to Honolulu for a three-game tournament, the Waikiki Beach Marriott Rainbow Wahine Showdown. The Cavaliers managed a 60-43 victory against host Hawaii but showed little of the tenacity and focus of the Tennessee tilt during defeats to No. 24 Texas, 79-53, and California, 59-50.

Virginia’s shaky Thanksgiving trip dropped them from the national rankings, but the Cavaliers (5-2) look to get back on track as Indiana (2-3) comes to Charlottesville Thursday for a Big Ten/ACC Challenge contest.

Last Friday, my friends and I went out for a night on the town. We were celebrating the 21st birthday of one of my best friends, so our collective mood was quite festive. And while both length and content restrictions won’t allow me to fully chronicle the circumstances of the night, I can assure you it was a fun time.

Well, for the most part.

As they say, all good things must come to an end, but I can’t imagine many have taken a turn for the worse as abruptly as events did on this particular evening. It took only about 30 seconds, a few admittedly poorly chosen words on my part, two astonishingly over-excitable bouncers and one cleanly landed — and exceptionally painful — left hook to my right temple for us to realize that our serene evening out had ended.

It’s no wonder then, that when I woke up the following afternoon, safe and sound in my own bed — sober drivers, people — I was feeling exceedingly thankful. And when I turned on my phone to check Twitter — always the first task of my day — and saw that the NBA and its players had finally agreed to terms on a new deal, my gratitude only multiplied.

Yeah, it may have taken me a couple extra days, a harrowing life experience and the best news I’d heard in months, but I was finally in the Thanksgiving spirit. I was thankful for my more rational friends, who had removed me from the previous night’s extracurricular events surprisingly effectively. Thankful for my strong chin, which masked most evidence of the blunt force trauma to my face. And obviously, thankful that basketball, my favorite sport, had miraculously been revived after months of seemingly being on life support.

I can’t express how grateful I am that I will actually get to see Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire play one full — or at least somewhat full — season together in New York. As a lifelong, and thus tormented, Knicks fan, the thought of being forced to lose an entire season at this juncture of my life was almost unbearable. It was like staying faithful to an utterly psychotic, morbidly obese girlfriend for 10 years, sticking with her through thick and thin, and then — right when she shed 500 pounds and finally regained her sanity — she was promptly thrown in jail. I lose sleep over these things, people.

Speaking of lockout ending appreciation, I bet Kobe Bryant is all sorts of pumped up that he wont be forced to miss any more games in his Hall of Fame career. As much as he may say he doesn’t, nobody in the NBA cares more about his perceived legacy, and therefore his stats, than Kobe. And with many significant milestones well within his reach — not to mention, a brand new, experimental-German-surgery-infused knee at his disposal — we should all be appreciative that we get the chance to watch a highly motivated and uncommonly rested Kobe Bryant play basketball again.

And while Kobe is busy giving thanks for another opportunity to tie Jordan’s six NBA titles, I would imagine that LeBron James is undoubtedly thankful for another shot at winning his first. Personally, I’m just grateful I’ll be able to see if, in his lockout-induced time off, LeBron has worked on any of his basketball deficiencies — some as easily fixed as his complete absence of a low post game, others intrinsically unfixable such as his shriveling like a weathered prune in big moments.

Actually, while we’re on the topic of winning and being “clutch,” I’m thankful that the Sports Gods blessed us with Tim Tebow. Yeah, I said it. In a world riddled with overly arrogant athletes who fold in big moments, Tebow is a much-needed breath of fresh air. I honestly don’t know how he’s doing it, especially in spite of a disturbingly unsupportive John Elway and a throwing arm just slightly better than my own, but the kid simply can’t be beat right now. Thank you for turning the football world squarely on its head, Tim, even if it’s only temporarily.

And thanks in advance to Dirk Nowitzki because, if his elevated performance in last year’s playoffs is any indication, there are countless more incredibly awkward, one-footed, herky-jerky, turnaround, fade-away jump shots in store for us this season. Nowitzki’s patented move defies both the bounds of reality and the limits of unintentional comedy, and the thought of that makes me downright giddy.

Let’s also show some appreciation to all the NBA players for being surprisingly well-behaved during this lockout. Nineteen NFL players were arrested during a span of 120 days during their work stoppage this past summer, yet I don’t remember hearing of any criminal activity from the NBA players throughout their entire extended unemployment. There was no story on Delonte West masterminding a weapons cartel in Mexico, Eddy Curry holding up a string of fast-food restaurants in Chicago, or even Michael Beasley running a nationwide marijuana dispensary out of his Bentley.

Nothing.

On that note, I’m thankful that the next time I see Kevin Durant play a sport, it won’t be intramural flag football. I’m thankful that I will never have to hear the name Billy Hunter again and that Derek Fisher will no longer be the most frequently shown player on “SportsCenter.”

I’m thankful that basketball is back, that my life can now restore some semblance of normalcy and that, gradually, the pain in my face is dissipating.

But with all that said, the thing I’m undoubtedly most thankful for is the inherent understanding nature of my parents, who, with the aid of this column, have just now learned of my fateful night last weekend.

It’s good to be thankful.

Senior cornerback Chase Minnifield, senior defensive tackle Matt Conrath and senior offensive guard Austin Pasztor earned first-team All-ACC honors to headline the eight Virginia football players named to the All-ACC squad.

Junior offensive tackle Oday Aboushi and junior linebacker Steve Greer garnered second-team All-ACC recognition. Junior tailback Perry Jones, senior safety Rodney McLeod and senior center Anthony Mihota received honorable mentions.

The combined five selections to the top two All-ACC teams and the eight total All-ACC mentions are the most for Virginia since the 2004 season saw the Cavaliers earn seven and eight selections, respectively.

Minnifield, one of 10 finalists for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award and one of 15 semifinalists for the Jim Thorpe Award — given to the top defensive back in college football — earned his second consecutive first-team All-ACC honor and continues to strengthen his case as a top-50 selection in the 2012 NFL Draft. He has 50 tackles, seven tackles for loss, three interceptions and one blocked kick this season.

Conrath has recorded 64 tackles, is tied for the team lead with 11 tackles for loss and also has two sacks, two forced fumbles and three blocked kicks on the year. Pasztor has helped the Cavaliers compile 1,984 rushing yards and has not surrendered a single sack in 781 offensive plays this season.

—compiled by Matt Welsh