Pepperdine University has announced a $50 million gift to its School of Law from alumnus Rick J. Caruso (JD '83) and his wife, Tina.

Made through the Caruso Family Foundation, the gift will support efforts to expand educational access to historically underserved populations and strengthen academic programming at the law school. Caruso will partner with the school to raise an additional $50 million over the next decade to sustain and expand those initiatives, while a portion of the gift will be used to bolster the Caruso Family Loan Forgiveness Fund, an endowed fund the couple established to reduce the student debt of graduates who dedicate themselves to public service. In recognition of the gift, the school will be renamed the Rick J. Caruso School of Law.

Longtime supporters of the school, the Carusos created the Rick J. Caruso Research Fellows Program at Pepperdine Law in 1994 to support faculty scholarship and the Caruso Family Chair in Law in 1998. In 1985, at age twenty-six, Caruso was appointed commissioner of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the youngest commissioner in the city's history; after founding a real estate development firm in 1987, he served as president of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners from 2001 to 2006 and led the effort to overhaul the Los Angeles Police Department.

"The lack of affordable education in our nation and the student debt crisis is not only inhibiting underprivileged students from gaining equal opportunity to education but also discouraging potential students from exploring careers in public service, roles that have a critical impact on society," said Caruso. "My sincere hope is that this gift will be one of the first steps towards reducing the barrier to entry for these students and will inspire the next generation of public servants.

"As a city, we need to come together to support underprivileged kids by giving them an education so they can succeed and give back to their own communities," he added. "That's what it means to be a community."