One of these teams was Edustus, created in 1994. Edustus was the student representation of EBS, with representatives elected from amongst all the students. Edustus, the board of which was called student government, helped to mediate the students’ problems and proposals to the school’s management and represented EBS students in the pan-Estonian umbrella organisation of students, the Estonian Students’ Union.
Edustus was also involved in organising the fun side of student life, i.e. social events. It also issued the student newsletter and organised sports events. Jaana Liigand-Juhkam, who was appointed president of the student government in the academic year 1997/1998 recalls how any free time left from lectures was dedicated to organisation duties. “I sat at my desk in EBS until 10 o’clock in the evening – there was always something to do. The computer room was very popular, allowing me to communicate by e-mail – no one had a PC at home back then,” Liigand-Juhkam recalls.
Edustus soon had competition. In 1996, a student club by the name of OilClub was established. According to the founders Kaido Kruuse and Karel Loide, the aim was to unite “students with active legal and partying capacity”. OilClub organised parties and summer days for the school, edited the student newsletter and published four EBS yearbooks (EBS has published a total of 5 yearbooks). The OilClub also established a sports club, enthusiastically organising sports events. OilClub was quite critical of Edustus, accusing it of failing in its duties – even though OilClub might not do things perfectly, at least it is doing the right things…
Nonetheless, OilClub’s time came to an end – its founders graduated from school and OilClub vanished from existence in the first half of the 21st century. But Edustus continued.
In 2001, Edustus was renamed EBS student representation, with its representative body, which previously functioned as a non-profit association, becoming a structural unit of EBS. The duties of the student representation have remained the same: to promote and coordinate student life, and to serve as the herald of students both within and outside the school.