A former Macalester College professor faces a felony charge after a student’s backpack was allegedly soaked in urine — and investigators say they found at least six other urine-related incidents tied to him.
Macalester College spent part of the last year dealing with a campus mystery involving urine showing up in places urine generally does not belong. Trash cans. Water bottles. Decorations. Then a student returned to her backpack and found what investigators say was enough urine damage to push the whole saga into felony territory.
Former biology professor Paul Fischer is now charged with first-degree damage to property after prosecutors say a student’s backpack and belongings suffered more than $2,000 in damage. The student had left the bag unattended for only a few minutes outside Fischer’s office before returning to find it soaked.
According to the criminal complaint cited by CBS Minnesota, campus public-safety officials connected Fischer to at least six other reports involving urine found around campus. The list reportedly included trash cans, individual water bottles and decorations belonging to other professors.
Police say Fischer acknowledged developing a habit of urinating into cups and disposing of the contents in trash cans or laboratory sinks. He has not been convicted, and his explanation for the backpack incident is that any contact may have been accidental.
Accidental is doing a lot of work there. Accidentally spilling coffee on a student’s backpack is plausible. Accidentally becoming the central character in a year-long collection of campus urine reports is the sort of explanation that tends to generate follow-up questions.
Macalester says Fischer’s employment ended during the 2025–26 academic year. The college has declined to discuss personnel details beyond confirming that he is no longer employed there.
The charge carries potentially serious consequences. CBS reports that a first-degree property-damage conviction in Minnesota can bring up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
The case is bizarre partly because the alleged conduct sounds more like a particularly committed dorm-room prank than something linked to a longtime professor. Fischer taught at Macalester for more than two decades, which makes the allegations harder to file mentally under “college kid does something gross and stupid.”
Investigators still have to prove the backpack charge in court, and the other incidents described by campus officials are part of the broader investigative history rather than separate convictions. That distinction matters, even if the overall fact pattern remains deeply strange.
The legal system will eventually sort out what was intentional, what was accidental and what prosecutors can actually prove. In the meantime, Macalester may want to add one more item to freshman orientation: keep your backpack close, label your water bottle and apparently never assume the weirdest campus story has already happened.
