I assume based on your reference to .edu and your [tag:can-spam-act-of-2003] tag that you are interested in United States law.  The scheme you describe is illegal under the CAN-SPAM Act.  

[15 USC 7704 (b) (1) (a) (ii)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/7704)

>  (b) Aggravated violations relating to commercial electronic mail 
>
> (1)
> Address harvesting and dictionary attacks 
>
>(A) In general 
> 
> It is unlawful
> for any person to initiate the transmission, to a protected computer,
> of a commercial electronic mail message that is unlawful under
> subsection (a), or to assist in the origination of such message
> through the provision or selection of addresses to which the message
> will be transmitted, if such person had actual knowledge, or knowledge
> fairly implied on the basis of objective circumstances, that— 
>
>(i) the
> electronic mail address of the recipient was obtained using an
> automated means from an Internet website or proprietary online service
> operated by another person, and such website or online service
> included, at the time the address was obtained, a notice stating that
> the operator of such website or online service will not give, sell, or
> otherwise transfer addresses maintained by such website or online
> service to any other party for the purposes of initiating, or enabling
> others to initiate, electronic mail messages; or
>
> (ii) the electronic
> mail address of the recipient was obtained using an automated means
> that generates possible electronic mail addresses by combining names,
> letters, or numbers into numerous permutations.

The last part (ii) specifically forbids what you propose ("combining names... into various permutations).

Under [15 USC 7706](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/7706) you may be liable for statutory damages of up to $250 per email.

In addition to being illegal, I suspect your plan will also be ineffective: this sort of spam attack would be really easy for the university to detect and block.