UC Berkeley is at risk of losing funding unless they provide information related to any potential "foreign collaborations" to the Trump administration's Department of War by the end of August. Cal is one of 30 universities currently subject to this threat.The demand from the Department of War was is sued earlier this week and specifies the need for universities to complete a "comprehensive audit" by the end of the month or risk losing their access to federal funds, per the Chronicle. The institutions subject to this threat also include UCLA and UC San Diego. This probe marks the latest in a long series of investigations initiated by the Trump administration against some of the nation's most elite universities.Citing concern that these colleges are in cahoots with foreign powers and not doing enough to combat anti-semitism, among other allegations, the quantity of investigations levied at these institutions has reached a point where they've now begun to repeat themselves. The Chronicle notes that only last year, the US Department of Education launched a probe concerning alleged incidents of "improper handling of foreign funding" aimed at both Harvard and UC Berkeley.Dan Mogulof, a spokesperson for UC Berkeley, has confirmed the campus has received notice of the audit and noted that "so far" no findings of foreign ties related to last year's Department of Education investigation have been uncovered.As the Guardian reports, other universities subject to this latest probe include the University of Southern California, Harvard, MIT, Duke, and New York University.In a statement issued earlier this week, the Pentagon's Chief Technology Officer, Emil Michael, noted simply that "the Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security.” This order follows a release last month in which the Pentagon identified 130 foreign universities and research institutions alleged to be engaging in conduct that could put funds for domestic research and development at risk of misappropriation. ...read more read less