Student involvement in higher education governance has traditionally been seen as an important element in institutional decision-making. Student governance, along with faculty, staff, and trustee governance, is seen as an important, defining element in higher education decision making, and an element that helps to define the unique nature of the academy. This value, however, has not been consistently aligned with administrative efforts to improve efficiency. The result is a crisis in shared governance in higher education. The current study explored one aspect of shared governance, specifically, how to improve student participation in the self-governance process. Through a structured survey of student governance participants, and a survey based on Miles' (1997) qualitative research, results indicated specific strategies that can be utilized to improve involvement levels, and that these strategies differ in perceived importance and effectiveness based on institutional typology. Specifically, students from research universities stressed the need to communicate early and often with new students and to build social relationships that encourage participation in institutional activities. (Contains 2 tables.)