A former Macalester College chemistry professor has been charged by summons after a student said she found urine on her backpack and belongings in a campus science building, causing $2,070 in damage. Paul Jerome Fischer, 55, of St. Paul, taught chemistry at the college for 25 years before resigning amid the investigation, and he is due to make his first court appearance next month.
According to Pioneer Press, the student was studying in a common area of the Olin-Rice Science Center outside Fischer’s office on Dec. 5, 2025, when she left her table for about six minutes. When she returned, she found urine on her backpack and reported that she believed Fischer had urinated on it because he was the only person nearby. The outlet reports Fischer was charged with felony criminal damage to property, though he did not have an attorney listed in the court file as of Thursday afternoon, Oct. 8, 2026, and could not be reached for comment.
Fischer gave police a different account. He told investigators he believed a cup of urine had accidentally spilled onto the student’s belongings, and he said he had developed a habit of urinating in a cup for the previous year and a half to two years, per the same account. He reportedly told police he was emptying a container of urine into a trash can near his office on Dec. 5 and said he disposed of urine in trash cans or lab sinks around campus.
Itemized Damage and a Monthslong Investigation
The student provided an itemized receipt showing the damaged backpack items totaled $2,070, the report states. St. Paul police received her report in early February, months after the alleged incident, and the case followed a Macalester College Department of Public Safety investigation into urination incidents on campus, according to the criminal complaint cited in the report…