April's Pride Month marks the debut of a newly restructured Triskelion (Trisk), Brandeis' GLBTQQSA organization. Although Pride 2003 is "not so different" from past Trisk events, according to Trisk General Coordinator Aaron Schwid '05, the club will soon have a different "look."Trisk, an organization centered on political, social and educational factors for the homosexual, bisexual, transgender, intersex, unidentified and questioning students and other members of the Brandeis community, spent the past several months rectifying the organization shortcomings, Schwid said.

Schwid called the former version of Trisk "unorganized, uneducated and unmotivated." The organization did not provide "consistent, professional" or "educated service" to club members and the community. "We needed a total overhaul," he said.

During Coming Out Week last semester, Schwid and the Trisk board decided to revive the organization by giving it a break. The absence provided the opportunity to reexamine Trisk's role on campus.

Schwid said that next year, Trisk's "internal structure" will be changed to "provide the best service possible."

Providing the "best service possible" entails many projects, including the development of a Queer Resource Center, according to Schwid.

"After some time," Schwid said, "the Queer Resource Center hopes to have the same respectability as clubs like the Student Sexuality Information Service (SSIS)."

The Queer Resource Center will allow students to receive "up-to-date information on current issues, academic knowledge and trained counseling," he said.

A political group, possibly named OUTreach, will afford students the chance to become active in "protests, rallies, policies, letter writing and other more proactive responses to queer phobia," Schwid added.

Currently, Trisk has been establishing relationships with the Intercultural Center (ICC), the Department of Student Life, the Office of Admissions, the School of Arts and Sciences, the Women's Studies Research Center and other clubs and departments. These on campus connections are being developed to "coordinate joint efforts," Schwid said.

"When people look at the ICC, they may assume that the subgroups all get along under the umbrella of diversity. They may forget that the subgroups have many cultural differences to overcome in order to work together. Queer groups are the same. Lesbians, bisexuals, gay men and transgender individuals don't always live under one happy rainbow. We have disagreements, too," Schwid said.

And as the adjustments to the organization's structure have been underway, Pride 2003 has scheduled 15 days of homosexual, bisexual, transgender and intersex pride. The final day of Pride 2003 will celebrate Trisk's 22nd birthday.

Individual events have had "very active turnouts," according to Schwid. Over 300 students were estimated to have attended the Big Queer Dinner last Tuesday, the event's "best turnout by far."

Brandeis students attended the Safe Colleges Conference at Tufts University, an event incorporated into Pride 2003, on Saturday, an event that Schwid said taught students to "motivate and activate a campus by hearing successes and setbacks."

While Schwid stated that the restructuring of Trisk will be a success, he also stated that "there is still a lot of work to be done. We still need more help, more leaders, and more commitment from the student body and larger community.