Another debate has centered on the degree to which available postgraduate preparation programs actually represent a distinct discipline . While the field bears a resemblance to psychology, counseling, and other general concentrations, debate and criticism of the field's major foundations are virtually nonexistent in theoretical discourse, calling into question the credibility of the academic underpinning of the field. As Bloland, Stamatakos, and Russell wrote, while student development theory “...has been widely distributed through the literature, in preparation programs, at workshops and conventions,” academics and professionals in the field have, “...failed to exercise their critical faculties to raise questions about student development, to slow down the head-long pace of its engulfment of the field of student affairs, and to examine alternatives and opinions as they presented themselves.”