The University of Chicago Law School has announced a three-year, $10 million gift from alumnus and university trustee David M. Rubenstein to provide full-tuition scholarships to sixty students.

Beginning in 2011, the gift will fund twenty merit scholarships in each of three successive classes, supporting about one-tenth of the school's student population. The scholarship effort is the largest ever undertaken by the school and represents the revival of a tradition introduced in 1959 of offering full scholarships to top students. "With $46,000 a year for tuition, plus room and board, it's easy to lose students to other schools that can provide these scholarships," Michael Schill, the law school's dean, told the Wall Street Journal. "Now, 10 percent of our enrolled class for the next three years will be getting tuition paid for, which will hopefully generate a virtuous cycle of even more scholarships."

Rubenstein, who attended the University of Chicago Law School on a full-tuition scholarship, is a co-founder of the Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private equity firms. The gift marks Rubenstein's first large donation since he pledged last month to give away more than half his wealth, currently estimated at $2.5 billion, as part of Bill and Melinda Gates' and Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge initiative, the Journal reports. Rubenstein said his gift is one of several he plans to announce this fall that will dramatically redesign and improve the recipient organizations.

"I want to give away my money while I am alive in a reasonably intelligent way," Rubenstein told the Journal. "No one ever looks back and says, 'Jeez, I wish I hadn't given away so much money to charity.' "