Ever since the publication of the Council of Student Personnel Associations in Higher Education (COSPA) of the Student Development Services in Post Secondary Education, arguments and debates have ensued as to whether this document: (1) was a statement of philosophy for student affairs; (2) was a philosophical replacement for the near-universally accepted Student Personnel Point of View (1949); (3) was to be accepted as a document in tandem with the Student Personnel Point of View working papers for the field; or (4) was not to be taken seriously as being in competition with the Student Personnel Point of View. As measured against the four basic components necessary for building a professional philosophy, student development cannot, in any way, be said to be a professional philosophy. To keep insisting that student development is philosophy is to swim against the current of our own evidence. Until such time that the inter-associational commitment and the wherewithall to forthrightly address the task of building a professional philosophy worthy of the name are developed, student development will have to take a back seat to the Student Personnel Point of View as representative of the field's basic philosophy. (ABL)