Sonya Hopkins was promoted to Associate Athletic Director of Academics in November of 2002.
Hopkins oversees academic services and support for the more than 500 student-athletes within Butler’s athletics department. Her expanded role places her on the department’s senior leadership team. Hopkins has also taken on the responsibility of spearheading the department’s #BUnited Initiative and serves as Butler’s representative on the BIG EAST Diversity and Inclusion Working Group.
Butler student-athletes posted one of the most impressive academic semesters in program history during the spring 2020 semester. The Butler Athletics department and its teams combined to post a cumulative GPA of 3.563. Three Butler athletics teams were recognized with BIG EAST Team Academic Awards for the 2019-20 season for having the highest collective grade-point averages in their respective conference sport. That total ranked fourth among the conference schools.
Butler had five of its programs honored by the NCAA with Public Recognition Awards in May. The distinction is for academic excellence after they scored in the top 10 percent of their sports in the most recent Academic Progress Rate (APR) results. Butler's women's golf and women's tennis programs are among an exclusive list of 62 teams nationally that have earned Public Recognition Awards in all 15 years of the program.
Butler Athletics launched BUnited, a department-wide initiative focused on empathy, education and experience, in June of 2020. Its mission is Building Unity Through Leadership, Education and Respect.
Hopkins was hired as the Coordinator of Academic Support at Butler in August of 2006. She is responsible for providing academic services for the student-athletes, as well as sponsoring the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), and is the liaison between the athletic department and the NCAA for the Student Athlete Affairs program (formerly CHAMPS/Life Skills).
Prior to coming to Butler, Hopkins was the Coordinator of Academic Services for the athletes at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill.
However, most of Hopkins’ professional background is linked to collegiate women’s volleyball. Hopkins was the assistant coach at Southern Illinois from 1983-89. She was then hired as the head volleyball coach at Kankakee Community College in June of 1989, coaching there for one season and compiling a record of 35-5.
Hopkins was then hired back to SIU as the head coach in 1990, where she led the program for 14 seasons. During her tenure at SIU, Hopkins coached several all-conference players, a conference player of the year, and three academic All-Americans. She was named Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 2002, as well as being named the Black Coaches Association Female Coach of the Year in 2003.
Hopkins received her Bachelor of Science degree in Communications at Southern Illinois in 1983 where she played volleyball. Hopkins, then known as Sonya Locke, was earned All-America honors in 1981 and was inducted into SIU's athletics Hall of Fame in 1988.
