Paul Fischer

Introduction

Paul Jerome Fischer is a former professor at Macalester College, a private liberal-arts college of roughly 2,000 students in Saint Paul, Minnesota, who taught there for more than 25 years before a series of alleged urination incidents ended his employment. In October 2026 he was charged with first-degree property damage — a felony — for allegedly spilling urine on a student’s backpack in the college’s science center, the culminating incident in what investigators described as a string of urine-related reports across the Olin-Rice Science Center dating back more than a year. He was charged by summons in Ramsey County District Court and faces up to five years in prison and a maximum $10,000 fine.

Background Information

Fischer joined Macalester in 2001 and spent roughly a quarter-century on its faculty, teaching in the chemistry department — though some coverage identified him as a biology professor — with an office in the Olin-Rice Science Center, the campus building where all of the reported incidents later occurred. His public profile was that of a fixture of the department rather than a visiting instructor; colleagues treated his eventual departure as significant enough that a department chair emailed chemistry majors and minors to confirm it.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged, not convicted. Fischer was charged with first-degree property damage in Ramsey County District Court in October 2026. The allegations are unadjudicated: he has made no public statement, no attorney was listed in the court file when the charge was reported, and he is presumed innocent unless and until convicted.

According to the criminal complaint, a Macalester student was studying on December 5, 2025 in a common area outside Fischer’s office in the Olin-Rice Science Center. She left her table for about six minutes and returned to find urine on her backpack, which sat on the table; the belongings inside were also damaged. She reported the matter to Saint Paul police on February 2, 2026, telling investigators she believed Fischer was responsible “because he was the only one around the area during the incident.” The student provided itemized receipts valuing the damaged property at $2,070.

When detectives contacted Macalester’s Department of Public Safety, they learned the college had already investigated: between November 2024 and December 2025 the science center had been the subject of six reports of urine turning up outside restrooms — in trash cans, in individuals’ water bottles, and inside other professors’ decorations. Fischer, questioned by police, admitted to a habit of the previous year and a half to two years of urinating into a cup and disposing of the contents in campus trash cans or laboratory sinks. He said that on December 5 he had been emptying a container of urine into a trash can near his office — near the desk where the student had been sitting — and believed the cup had spilled onto her belongings.

The college’s own inquiry had already ended his career there: the complaint states the individual caught urinating around campus “resigned pending the investigation,” and on February 19, 2026 chemistry professor Keith Kuwata emailed chemistry majors and minors, along with biochemistry-emphasis students, that “Fischer is no longer an employee of Macalester College and is not authorized to be anywhere on campus.” Ramsey County prosecutors filed the felony charge by summons on October 7-8, 2026 — more than ten months after the backpack incident — and Fischer is due in court in early November.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The charge drew wide local coverage built on the odd specifics — a 25-year professor, a cup, six reports — but Macalester has kept its own account minimal: “Macalester College is aware of the criminal charge against Paul Fischer. Fischer’s employment with Macalester ended during the 2025–26 academic year,” a school statement said, repeating that it does not comment on personnel matters. The student newspaper, The Mac Weekly, reported that Fischer’s RateMyProfessor page was “inundated” with new comments after the police report became public, many repeating unverified allegations that Fischer had urinated in individuals’ water bottles — claims the paper could not independently verify and which do not appear in the criminal complaint.

The resignation itself was handled quietly: no announcement was made when Fischer left, and his departure only became public when the student came forward to police in February and the student paper named him as the suspect in the property-damage investigation. Kuwata’s email to students acknowledged “an unsettling time for many of you,” saying the department’s priorities were student well-being and academic success.

Current Status

Fischer, 55 or 56 per differing reports, lives in Saint Paul and is awaiting his first court appearance, expected in early November 2026, on the first-degree property-damage charge. He was charged by summons rather than arrested, no attorney was listed in the court file when the charge was reported, and he could not be reached for comment; his only account remains the statement to police quoted in the complaint, in which he characterized the backpack soaking as an accidental spill while disposing of a cup of urine. The felony carries up to five years in prison and a maximum $10,000 fine. His employment at Macalester is over.

Impact on Their Career/Life

A 25-year teaching career ended not with a retirement announcement but with a department-chair email barring him from campus and a felony complaint filed ten months later. Whatever the court’s answer, the public record now pairs Fischer’s name with a charge sheet describing urine in trash cans, water bottles and colleagues’ office decorations — an account that spread from the criminal complaint to national coverage within days of the charge. The distinction between what he admitted to police (a disposal habit) and what he is charged with (damaging a student’s property) is now the whole of his public biography.

Sources

NY Post, “Whizzing college professor pees on student’s backpack, found to be campus’s mystery serial sprinkler: records,” Oct 11, 2026 — source
Twin Cities Pioneer Press, “Macalester prof charged with damaging student backpack with urine,” Oct 8, 2026 — source
CBS Minnesota, “Former Macalester College professor accused of damaging student’s backpack with his urine,” Oct 9, 2026 — source
KSTP 5 Eyewitness News, “Ex-Macalester College professor charged after urine spill on student’s backpack,” Oct 2026 — source
The Mac Weekly, “Former Professor Paul Fischer named suspect in property damage investigation,” Mar 11, 2026 — source