Author: Sydney Flowers

Solomon Siskind is living a double life at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign—two lives that are finely intertwined. 

While the Recreation, Sport and Tourism doctoral student researches diversity, inclusion and belonging for college athletes, he’s also applying those concepts as the Coordinator for Illini Way Student-Athlete Development in Illinois’ Division of Intercollegiate Athletics. 

“The research that I’m doing is what I’m doing in my every day,” Siskind said. “Who I’m advocating for, and who I’m empowering.” 

“No one day is the same” for Siskind in DIA. He’s laser-focused on preparing student-athletes for their transition to life after sport, whenever the ball stops bouncing or the track runs out for them. 

A Midwest transplant from the East Coast, Siskind’s own experiences—as a former college athlete himself on the University of Massachusetts Amherst football team—inform his new day-to-day as a young scholar-practitioner in the sports industry. 

Now, he’ll be studying these issues with his first grant-funded research project, entitled “Do we belong here? Examining Black student-athlete affinity groups as spaces for belonging at historically white institutions,” with a $7,500 grant from the NCAA. He spent the first year of his doctoral program ideating the project with his advisor, RST Assistant Professor Yannick Kluch. In his second year, he has started the research.

As one of five graduate students selected to receive the competitive grant, Siskind will conduct semi-structured interviews with Black student-athletes in NCAA Division I, predominantly white colleges across the country to better understand their experiences. Namely, what it’s like to be a Black student-athlete at a predominantly white institution and how being part of a racial affinity group affects their life on campus. 

The topic dovetails with Siskind’s professional and personal experiences. He was part of an affinity group for student-athletes of color at UMass Amherst, and he advises its equivalent at Illinois, called “EMPOWER.” 

“I’m interested in, what’s the impact going to be? How am I going to be able to take the findings from this research and provide recommendations to different institutions so they can better serve our Black student-athletes?” Siskind said. 

Kluch is excited for Siskind’s project getting off the ground on this “much-needed topic,” and grow his horizons in the field. 

“Solomon, in many ways, embodies many of the qualities I look for in doctoral students seeking to be advised by me. I care a lot about doing good work, doing rigorous research, knowing your expertise, but also applying that to industry contexts,” Kluch said. “With Solomon, he gets it. He has lived it. He lives it every day here at Illinois.” 

From the playing field to the classroom

From Brockton, Massachusetts, Siskind grew up in New England and stayed there for his undergraduate work, walking on to the UMass Amherst football team as a freshman. 
Even with sports in the foreground, Siskind was dead set on obtaining an advanced degree like his older brother and sister before him. 

“I’m a first-generation college student. My mother placed a big emphasis on higher education with me and my siblings from the beginning. She had both of my siblings in high school and as a single mother, her dream of going to college was no longer an option,” he said. 

Siskind had to confront his own athletic mortality far earlier than he would’ve liked. Multiple knee injuries and surgeries derailed his playing time at tight end for the UMass Minutemen.

“I’ve had a lot of time down off the field, I’ve had space to think about this, because I knew ‘I’m not going professional,’” Siskind said. 

It’s a concept he now talks about with his students at Illini Way: student-athlete identity foreclosure. What comes next after organized sports? Even the greats confront it eventually: Tom Brady is a football broadcaster now after 23 years in the NFL; Derek Jeter started preparing for the transition 10 years before his MLB career ceased; track and field star Allyson Felix started up her own lifestyle brand for women prior to retirement, Siskind recalled.

As an upperclassman, Siskind began to wrap his head around these concepts academically. In his junior year, he attended the Black Student-Athlete Summit in Austin, Texas, where presentations on student-athlete development and diversity, equity and inclusion in college sports lined the conference. 

“That was my first time seeing that type of research and the type of conversations I wanted to have,” Siskind said. “From that moment on, I was like, ‘I want to do that.’”  

For his first bite of research, he partnered with fellow college athlete Desiree Oliver of the UMass women’s basketball team to analyze the experiences of student-athletes of color at their university. 

The study aimed to better understand how their experiences as student-athletes were shaped by being at a predominantly white institution, or PWI. The data showed, among other trends, that student-athletes of color were three times as likely to report experiencing “culture shock,” and half reported feeling depressed or isolated at their institution.  

While obtaining his master’s, he learned under one of the top scholars in the diversity, equity and inclusion field as research assistant for Nefertiti Walker, now Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Equity for the UMass system.

“I knew this is what I wanted to do,” he said. 

Perfect timing, perfect opportunity

If you’d asked Siskind if he wanted to stay in the Midwest two years ago, he would’ve “thought you were absolutely out of your mind.” 

A postgraduate internship at the NCAA’s Office of Inclusion brought him from the East Coast to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he supported the office’s inclusion initiatives for a broad swath of student identities. 

Outreach from a familiar face, Elizabeth Hamlet, opened his eyes to the university two hours to his west, in Urbana-Champaign. Hamlet was the Senior Assistant Director of Academic Success at UMass while Siskind attended, but now she serves as the Assistant Director of Academic Services for Illinois Athletics. They discussed a new opening in the athletic department in student-athlete development.   

“Liz had been a mentor for me at UMass, and was someone who helped me develop off the field,” Siskind said. 

The opportunity was attractive. At the same time, another connection was making the move to Urbana: Kluch had applied for a tenure-track professorship at RST. The two got offered and accepted their Illinois positions at the same time. 

“When I thought about which Ph.D. programs I wanted to go into, he was the person I wanted to work with,” Siskind said. “I knew our research, our works and passions already aligned with one another.” 

“It was really perfect timing.” 

Siskind and Kluch had been acquainted for some time, following each other on social media platforms because they shared a research area. Their scholarly interest in diversity, equity and inclusion overlapped perfectly. 

“The professionals who care about these things in the sports industry, it’s a pretty small and tight-knit group,” Kluch said. 

Kluch had caught wind of Siskind’s social justice leadership on the UMass campus during his time as a student-athlete: “He was very big on elevating the athlete voice, promoting racial justice, social justice, DEI within those contexts.”  

What further connects them, Kluch said, is their shared philosophy as “scholar practitioners,” aiming to extend the impact of their research beyond the classrooms or academic journals and into the real world. When he learned Siskind wanted to pursue graduate school, Kluch hit the recruiting trail to bring him to Illinois’ RST program. 

“It’s so fun to work with him because a lot of grad students struggle with finding the connection between the theory, the theoretical, and the practical. And he walks that line seamlessly,” Kluch said. 

An advisor who’s “been in their shoes” 

Mary Long started at Illinois Athletics just a month after Siskind, and they’ve been crossing paths ever since. 

Long, a second-year Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Fellow at DIA, coordinates cultural events for student-athletes, facilitates diversity training for staff, leads a mentorship program for students and advises Illini Allies, the LGBTQIA+ affinity group for Illinois athletes. She complimented Siskind’s ability to build rapport with student-athletes and quickly link them to scholarships or leadership opportunities. 

“He takes the time to connect with them on a personal level—he’s warm, friendly, and genuinely interested in each student-athlete. Once he’s in your corner, he’s all in,” Long said. “His biggest strength as a student-athlete development coordinator is that he has firsthand experience as a former student-athlete. He’s been in their shoes, so he gets the unique challenges they face.” 

Siskind’s schedule is packed these days, balancing his part-time doctorate program with a full-time student support role. He leads sessions of RST 118: Transition to College for first-year student-athletes and helps them with major selection and grad school applications, resumes, leadership development and the like. 

On top of that, he heads Illini Way’s community outreach efforts and co-advises the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), which provides insights to athletics administration and leadership development for more than 40 Illinois student-athletes across each athletic team, all while advising EMPOWER’s student leaders. 

“I view student-athlete development as a part of DEI, because the work that we do has real implications in the lives of our students. whether it is through creating inclusive spaces, developing life skills, or growing civically and community engaged leaders, it all matters,” Siskind said. “The transition to life after sport is a very hard transition. I also think being able to help our student-athletes understand who they are as individuals, as leaders, and prepare them for life itself is super important.”

The job is fulfilling, but the opportunity to study in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism was a huge draw. Siskind has particularly enjoyed taking “Theory and Methods of Leisure” as a student of Associate Professor Liza Berdychevsky this fall. 

“The number of things I’ve learned in the last few class sessions, it blows my mind. It’s not just sport management in RST—I’m excited to continue learning from all the faculty here,” he said.  

(Siskind’s study on racial affinity groups for student-athletes is actively recruiting. Visit the following link to complete the survey and see if you qualify for participation.) 

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