This university has been in slow decline for the last decade, sliding toward mediocrity, lacking the resources to do otherwise. The economics department recently had an external review. The first paragraph of the report of the external reviewers is informative. Upon arrival at UNC, the committee chair was asked to prepare a report that described how UNC Economics could achieve a rank of 15-th in the country. The committee's report does not address this question.
Academic reputations are slow to decline.
Our current students will still graduate from a university with national prestige. Increasing our tuition to the level of peer institutions may not stop UNC's decline, but it is one of the few options that is current available. If a childish personal attacks on Professors Guilkey and Samulski is the best argument you can devise with the intellectual you have honed at this university, then no matter how little you have paid for your education you were cheated. Compared to what it cost to educate them, is this a lot or a little. These are cost per year per student.