I would think the game would generate a new file like it does for some of the others when you remove them.

Of course I don't know a thing about how it works, so I'll shut up now.

This happened to me. It was something I did with SimPE. If you can afford the Hard drive space I recommend doing a fresh installation of TS2 and University. Then before you ever play, back up both of the core game directories in a seperate folder. Then anytime you need to reinstal, just delete the game directories and replace them with your backups. It's a lot simpler and less time consuming than reinstalling.
This solved the Icon problem though, so will reinstalling.

Can any objects.package file work?

Like does everyone's object.package contain the same stuff.

If so maybe someone could copy theirs to here

this worked for me! What a relief! This was effecting more than just my icons, but clothing transitions too!

if you can do a fresh install, copy the objects.package file from C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 University\TSData\Res\Objects and paste it over the corrupt file in the 'not fresh install' and everything seems to work fine again!

I did notice too that before doing this, the date on my objects.package file was 10 days after install, the same day I lost my icons and such.

If you do not have a clean uncorrupted objects.package:
Copy your entire \My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 folder including ALL files and subfolders to your Desktop.
Reinstall University.
Browse to \Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 University\TSData\Res\Objects
Copy the new uncorrupted objects.package file to a separate folder NOT under The Sims 2 anything. Keep this file safe.
Move your The Sims 2 folder that you backed up to your Desktop back to it's original location.
Your game should now be restored with all your settings, neighborhoods, etc.
If the memory problems pops up again, you now have a safe objects.package stored that you can copy over.

Actually, there should just be an uncorrupted objects.package on the Sims 2 university disc 1.

Like the Sims 2, all the files are just in a big ol' zip file called "compressed.zip". Just look in that, and viola, there it should be.

I had the same thing happen and found the file here:

Program files>EA Games>The Sims 2 University>TS Data>Res>Objects

Replacing that file worked perfectly for me

Wow! I have been having this same problem. Thanks for all the help.

Huzzah! I have now added this to my University Bug Thread (see the sticky). Thanks for all your help and patience! :D