Finally, it has happened. The Cork Regional Technical College has become the Cork Institute for Technology (CIT). There wasn't too much pomp, not too much ceremony, when the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, pulled back the red curtain to reveal the triumphant change of name at the Bishopstown campus.
It was said in Cork that without a local Minister at the Cabinet table, nothing would get done. Right now, Micheal Martin's stock is riding high.
The CIT is about to undergo a metamorphosis. The RTC, as it was known, will be unrecognisable when the £46 million promised by the Department is put in place over the next few years.
The campus will be redesigned, upgraded and improved. The CIT is going to reinvent itself with a view to establishing that its role in Cork is every bit as important as UCC's. Industry likes the CIT - the quality of its graduates, its standards of excellence, and its ability to turn out people who can perform at the highest level.
What struck me most at the ceremony was the vastness of the place. The teeming population, including some 5,000 full-time as well as almost 6,000 part-time students, swarms around the complex of buildings. The new CIT, though, could do something about information points in its hallways. It might also take a look at how its telephone system can leave people hanging on forever.
Maybe this will happen when huge new capital developments are put in place - such as a new catering school, administrative centre and student centre. This is, after all, the Cork Institute of Technology.