An April 9 inspection by Lorain County Public Health found multiple critical violations of health and safety codes at Stevenson Dining Hall and the Rathskeller. Inspectors cited the Rathskeller’s mechanical dishwasher as failing to reach the required water temperature for proper sanitization, while Stevie received a third repeat violation for the presence of flies in and around the main kitchen’s sinks.
According to data from the county’s public health portal, inspectors had first issued a “controlling pests” warning describing the flies and instructed AVI Foodsystems at Oberlin to “contact a licensed pest control company to abate the issue” Oct. 25, 2023. Health officials issued the same warning and instruction Oct. 2024 and then again April 2025.
County records show that Stevie has received at least one critical violation of health codes during every one of its 12 unwarned inspections since 2019. The facility has, however, passed both inspections initiated by complaints, without any violations recorded during those anticipated visits.
Critical violations are reserved for mistakes that may “make someone sick quicker,” Jenna Keys, Oberlin City inspector for Lorain County Public Health, said. Nevertheless, she said, there’s no set number of violations at which consumers should be alarmed.
“If, as a consumer, you’re looking online and seeing a lot of critical repeats [that might be a cause for concern],” Keys said.
In an interview with the Review, AVI Director of Operations Sarirose A. Hyldahl said that the Stevie team treats the affected sinks with a fly-killing chemical twice per day.
“There’s only so much that we can do to stay ahead of that,” Hyldahl said.
Hyldahl also noted that all AVI facilities on campus receive monthly visits from an exterminator, and had done so prior to the first citation for flies. Since the latest inspection, her team has upped the drain treatments to three times per day.
“That’s not under our purview,” Hyldahl said when pressed on whether AVI had hired a specialist for the fly problem following the inspector’s fall 2023 recommendation to do so, before deferring to Facilities Operations as responsible for pest control on campus. The Facilities team, when reached by phone for confirmation, requested an email follow up, then declined to comment further, directing all questions to the Office of Communications.
AVI conducts monthly self-audits of health and safety concerns, Hyldahl said, in addition to semesterly audits performed by EcoSure Food Safety, a third-party contractor hired to perform such inspections. While EcoSure inspections are “stricter than the Lorain County Health department,” their results are not public, and she declined to share detailed results from a March audit with the Review beyond stating that it had concluded with an overall score of 94 percent.
The violation Lorain County inspectors noted in the Rathskeller, Hyldahl said, had occurred after employees neglected to drain and reset the facility’s conveyor-based dishwasher between runs. According to the inspector’s notes, this had resulted in a water temperature varying between 150 and 156 degrees Fahrenheit, well below the 180 degrees required by Ohio state law. Hyldahl noted that the affected machine has been in use since 1985. The technician who performed the installation, she said, will retire this year.
“At Oberlin, it is important to us that students have a positive and safe experience in Oberlin’s dining halls,” Josh Jensen, Oberlin’s VP for Communications, said. “We have discussed the results of the recent Lorain County inspection with the team at AVI and have reviewed AVI’s plan to remediate the concerns — many of which were implemented immediately — and their plans to ensure that these issues are not repeated. We have confidence in AVI and believe they have taken the necessary steps to continue providing high-quality dining services to Oberlin’s campus community.”
A Review analysis of records from the City of Oberlin found that code violations of varying severity have also been reported at local restaurants. In the last five years, inspectors noted 29 violations at Lorenzo’s Pizzeria, although the majority occurred prior to 2023. The restaurant has cleared its last two inspections with no violations.
Of the nine dining establishments examined by the Review, only Stevenson had been issued critical code violations following all of its standard inspections. Other on-campus eateries, including the Rathskeller and Umami, reported high violation rates, but cleared some inspections without critical citations.
Azariah’s Café reported the lowest violation rates, receiving critical citations during only three of its 10 standard inspections since 2019.
“That’s the beauty of having access to this tool,” Katie Bevan, a spokesperson for the county health office, said. “We understand the value in the public having access to this information so that they can make their own personal choice on their health behaviors.”
A searchable database of health code violations at campus dining locations is available below.
