BERKELEY — Perhaps it was only a matter of time before the smash Broadway hit “Hamilton” worked its way into the curriculum at UC Berkeley.

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Why some Asian Americans are on the front lines of the campaign against affirmative action Five years ago, all new students and faculty at Cal began receiving a book in the mail over the summer as an expansion of a program called On The Same Page, which began in the College of Letters and Science in 2006. The idea was to foster a shared conversation and a sense of belonging on a campus that can often feel huge and intimidating. Last year, for example, students read “Just Mercy,” a memoir about race and the criminal justice system by the activist and lawyer Bryan Stevenson.

But this summer, the school didn’t ask students to crack open a book. Instead, it asked them to crank up the volume on the soundtrack of “Hamilton,” a hip-hop musical.

“This is the one intellectual thing they’ll have in common when they get here,” said Alix Schwartz, head of the On The Same Page program.

Created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Hamilton” not only offers students historical perspective but also opens up all sorts of questions about history, race, justice and politics that are relevant today, Schwartz said.

Alejandra Marquez, an 18-year-old Berkeley freshman from Monterrey, Mexico, is glad the school settled on the soundtrack this year.

“I love ‘Hamilton!’” she exclaimed as she stood near an entrance to campus exchanging contact information with a new acquaintance.

Marquez said she felt compelled to research the story more after seeing the show and listening to the soundtrack. “The music is so relevant to American culture in general,” she said.

This weekend, Jeremy McCarter, who with Miranda wrote “Hamilton: The Revolution,” a behind-the-scenes book about the creation of the musical, delivered a keynote address to kick off the On The Same Page program. McCarter, who also wrote “Young Radicals,” which is about a group of young idealists in the run-up to World War I, will talk about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton but also about the uncertainty and tumult in America today.

As Berkeley’s freshmen went through orientation this week, they were keenly aware of what’s happening off campus, including last weekend’s deadly march of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia.

And Berkeley is expected to be a hotbed of political activity in the next couple of weeks. On Aug. 27, white nationalists are planning to rally in downtown Berkeley at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. And on Sept. 14, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro is scheduled to speak on campus, prompting concerns that his presence could spark violence similar to what occurred when former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos was slated to speak earlier this year.

“A lot of our students want to know, ‘What can we do?'” Schwartz said.

There are no easy answers, but “Hamilton” offers a common starting point for “hard discussions,” Schwartz said.

Berkeley being Berkeley, the school has rarely shied away from controversy. One year, the school generated international backlash and received a rebuke from the California Department of Public Health when it asked students to submit DNA samples to study genetic testing and personalized medicine, as part of the On The Same Page program.

This fall, students can take a course on “Hamilton” and the Federalist Papers. And if that doesn’t meet their fancy, a course on Asian-American influences in American musicals is always an option.

To the south, San Jose State will put on a production of Miranda’s earlier work, “In the Heights,” at the Hammer Theater using the original Broadway set.

Students aren’t required to see the show, just as students at Berkeley aren’t required to take a “Hamilton”-related course or go to any of the campus events — or, for that matter, listen to the soundtrack.

But school officials hope that by choosing something as enduring and timely and compelling as Miranda’s work to study, students will want to participate.

Said Schwartz: “You want the students to feel like they can jump right in.”