On September 28, 2024, civic scholar Harry Boyte gave a keynote address at Ball State University’s Annual Civic Learning Conference in which he placed the Center for Democracy and Civic Life's work in the context of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Boyte referenced UMBC and the Student Government Association in his remarks: “The university and its Center for Democracy and Civic Life, the Student Government, and others have been national leaders in student empowerment for public purposes. They have been exemplary models for civic as well as individual achievement. They aim at a land where everyone is free.”

Boyte’s address also illuminated some of the philosophy enacted through the Center’s work: "developing [students'] capacities for making change for public, commonwealth ends," and supporting a democracy in which politics "is far more than partisan politics, in which citizens become 'publics,' not mobs or consumers."

In addition, UMBC President Emeritus Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, gave a keynote address at the conference. Boyte also noted Hrabowski’s role in Martin Luther King’s Children’s Crusade and his work to foster a civic dimension within UMBC’s culture.