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According to the folks at FairVote, student governments at more than half of the thirty highest-ranked colleges and universities in the US News & World Report poll use instant-runoff voting (IRV) in their elections.

With IRV, voters rank candidates by preference, and when the candidate in last place is eliminated, the second-place choice votes from that candidate’s ballots are distributed among those remaining. The process is repeated until one candidate receives majority support. IRV eliminates the need for runoff elections while allowing supporters of candidates who finish behind the leaders to have a say in the final outcome. 

FairVote claims that campuses switching to IRV tend to see significant increases in turnout in student government elections.