Each week, Flavor ranks the town’s stand-out issues and residents throughout the week on a scale of ice cream scoops. This week, one scoop is the least dastardly of the acts, with three scoops being given to the most anger-inducing topic.

People who went as The Joker for Halloween.

I understand “The Dark Knight” was a pretty neat flick. Heath Ledger, may he rest in peace, deserves props for his acting prowess throughout the film. Do, however, realize that choosing The Joker as your Halloween costume was probably one of the laziest things you could have done. Unless you went all out with stage makeup and worked on your accent prior to going out, congratulations on being completely unoriginal.

Campus parking

According to an Oct. 30 Faculty Senate recap in the Northern Star, faculty aren’t happy about parking at NIU. With construction projects seemingly everywhere, the amount of available parking has diminished. While they’re arguing about that, I’d like to bring up that parking on campus is an issue not just for them but for every one of NIU’s 25,000 students. If people want to have visitors, it’s best they park in some dark, random parking lot on Sycamore Road than risk a horrendously overpriced NIU parking ticket. If students’ parents want to come visit, they jump through hoops to ensure their car doesn’t get towed. It’s OK for them to pay tuition, but not to park safely. The students are paying to be here; they should at least have the opportunity to put their car somewhere without shelling out their measly college earnings to Parking Services.

Ethics Training

As an NIU employee, I am required to take a half hour to review what it is to be ethical in the eyes of the state. According to the same Oct. 30 Faculty Senate recap, I, along with 8,500 of my closest colleagues, have to complete this by Nov. 14 to avoid being fined up to $5,000. As I took my ethics test, one of my co-workers pointed out the irony that while we don’t have to take our drivers’ tests every year, we have to take an ethics test every year. Wow. The state cares more about ensuring its employees are ethical, but it couldn’t give two cents about our safety on the open road. Cool.