In recent years, opportunities for student affairs educators to pursue professional development have increased. These opportunities include pursuing additional degrees or learning experiences sponsored by professional associations. However, these opportunities come with physical and financial costs that need to be collectively assessed and evaluated by professionals and faculty compared to their effectiveness in enhancing student affairs practice and improving the quality of life for student affairs educators. Graduate preparation programs and professional associations have pushed practitioners and faculty to think about the role of credentialism in perpetuating whiteness, neoliberalism, and labor inequity. For this article, the authors argued that while credentials are deemed necessary or helpful for career advancement and social mobility, they perpetuate inequality in that individuals in senior-level positions operate as gatekeepers by controlling who has access based upon what Collins (2019) referred to as an "artificial good" (p. 243). Certificates become an artificial good as they are used to demonstrate that a student affairs professional has more education, not that they are more skilled or knowledgeable. They will explore these credentialing initiatives from their perspectives as a Black woman faculty member in a higher education and student affairs (HESA) graduate program and a White woman, mid-level student affairs professional.