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I think you're confusing state universities with local community colleges.  The main focus of community colleges is accessibility and educational opportunities for everyone.  The primary focus of any university will be to become as competitive and selective as possible due to world-renowned degree programs.  To strive to be as average as possible would result in the loss of your entire faculty and an unemployed former president.  

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They already pay back.  One of the main factors in educating your citizens is to increase earnings, which in turn returns more to the state and local economies in the form of taxes.  It doesn't go directly back into the endowment, but something like that would be very hard to manage as students move out of state or the country.  If the student considered their experience worthwhile, then hopefully they feel compelled on their own to be a lifelong contributor to their university's foundation.  

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The reason the President of a large research university earns six times the median income of the average Oregonian is because the scope of his work isn't that of an average Oregonian.  In fact, any CEO of a similarly-sized private corporation would be making at least five times as much.  I realize $300,000 is a lot of money, but nobody qualified to do so is insane enough to take on the responsibility of a major research university and actually do a good job at it for $50k.  

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