The problem undertaken in this study was to determine the perceptions that chief student personnel administrators have regarding the structure, practices, procedures, and budget considerations of professional staff development programs in divisions of student affairs in selected public and private institutions;The basic problem involved in the investigation is the perceptions that chief student personnel administrators have of the factors which significantly impact staff development programs in public and private senior level institutions;The questionnaire was used to obtain the data to achieve the purposes of this study. The survey instrument focused upon 11 distinct areas of inquiry which indicate the manner in which chief student personnel officers perceive staff development programs in divisions of student affairs. Distinct areas of the questionnaire were demographic data, staff development defined, current active staff development programs, staff development policy, structure, focus of staff development, budget for staff development, frequency of staff development programs, factors motivating staff participation, program communication, and program and activity evaluation;The 2 x 3 factorial analysis of variance format was used to analyze continuous data and the crosstabs (Chi Square) format was used to analyze discrete data;A total of 402 questionnaires were disseminated to chief student personnel officers of comparable officials. There were 165 usable questionnaires returned which represented 41 percent of the sample; however, only 39.8 percent of the returned questionnaires were usable;Information obtained from the analysis of the data indicated that the highest degree offered in an institution significantly affected the nature of staff development programs in divisions of student affairs;Analysis of the data allowed the investigator to determine that staff development programs, when compared to other programs in the division of student affairs, was less than an average budget priority;Finally, three distinct models of staff development were developed as a result of this study. These models focused upon the staff development enterprise as it related to updating individuals based upon the institutional organizational structure, staff obsolescence, and the needs of a diverse student population.