 Seaborg served as chancellor at the University of California , Berkeley , from 1958 to 1961 . His term coincided with a relaxation of McCarthy @-@ era restrictions on students ' freedom of expression that had begun under his predecessor , Clark Kerr . In October 1958 , Seaborg announced that the University had relaxed its prior prohibitions on political activity on a trial basis , and the ban on communists speaking on campus was lifted . This paved the way for the Free Speech Movement of 1964 @-@ 65 . 
