University has stomped on my passion for programming. The current academic education system is not a good fit for me. I want to invest my free time (I'm also working part time for a software company) in personal or open source projects because deep down I still love the act of programming. Do you have any suggestions for me? If anybody would be so kind to help me, I can provide further details about my areas of interest and things I don't like that much.

Hate to break it to you, but universities don't dictate what you'll do or be in life. I graduated with a degree in LIBERAL STUDIES and am now a senior BI architect. I did programming in school as I was originally a computer science major and I too felt bummed. My point is, don't let it kill any passion. Do you.

You spend most of your time at work or school. Make that time focused on what you enjoy doing and part of the path you want to do.

Fresh college grad here. I feel you depending on the college you go to a lot of the coding feels utterly useless. My biggest recommendation is if you find any free time code for yourself... learn and play with technology that seems fun to you even if you aren't too do it at work or required at school. After graduation what I learned through my jobs and personal is what landed me my current position but..... My degree is what even got me into the door of the interview.

Looking back it was my love for code, programmer friends, and projects that helped me through.

TLDR: never stop learning and tinkering and it gets better.