Need some context for Coogan's WC

I wonder about the context of the writing center in which Coogan worked while doing the research, or of other university writing centers at the time. While he brings in numerous theorists to back up his criticism of the academy and the state of composition in the university, there is no other evidence to support his assertions except what he reads between the lines of his interactions with students as an online tutor and, frankly, some of his conclusions are a big inductive jumps. This odd combination of a little empirical research with lots of theory makes me wonder why Coogan is so frequently cited in composition and writing center journals, unless it is because he addressed such a new topic at the time.