The administrative home of the College of the Liberal Arts, Sparks was previously known as the Liberal Arts Building and was named for former Penn State president Edwin Erle Sparks. Designed by architect Charles Z. Klauder in the classic revival style, the original building was completed in 1916, with the north wing added in 1930 and the central wing in 1939. Sparks serves as the administrative home for the College of the Liberal Arts and houses the college’s Student Services offices. It’s also home to the African Studies program and Departments of Applied Linguistics, Communication Arts and Sciences, and Philosophy, as well as the Africana Research Center, Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research, Center for Language Acquisition, and Center for Social Data Analytics.