Mr. Webster remarks, "I believe not used in America." In the old times, the university discharged this duty [teaching] by means of the public readings or lectures,... and by the keeping of acts and _opponencies_--being certain _vivâ voce_ disputations --by the students.--_The English Universities and their Reforms_, in _Blackwood's Magazine_, Feb. 1849. OPPONENT. In universities and colleges, where disputations are carried on, the opponent is, in technical application, the person who begins the dispute by raising objections to some tenet or doctrine. OPTIME. The title of those who stand in the second and third ranks of honors, immediately after the Wranglers, in the University of Cambridge, Eng. They are called respectively _Senior_ and _Junior Optimes_. See JUNIOR OPTIME, POLLOI, and SENIOR OPTIME. OPTIONAL. At some American colleges, the student is obliged to pursue during a part of the course such studies as are prescribed. During another portion of the course, he is allowed to select from certain branches those which he desires to follow. The latter are called _optional_ studies. In familiar conversation and writing, the word _optional_ is used alone. For _optional_ will come our way, And lectures furnish time to play, 'Neath elm-tree shade to smoke all day. _Songs, Biennial Jubilee_, Yale Coll., 1855. ORIGINAL COMPOSITION. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., an essay or theme written by a student in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, is termed _original_ composition. Composition there is of course, but more Latin than Greek, and some _original Composition_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 137. _Original Composition_--that is, Composition in the true sense of the word--in the dead languages is not much practised.--_Ibid._, p. 185. OVERSEER. The general government of the colleges in the United States is vested in some instances in a Corporation, in others in a Board of Trustees or Overseers, or, as in the case of Harvard College, in the two combined. The duties of the Overseers are, generally, to pass such orders and statutes as seem to them necessary for the prosperity of the college whose affairs they oversee, to dispose of its funds in such a manner as will be most advantageous, to appoint committees to visit it and examine the students connected with it, to ratify the appointment of instructors, and to hear such reports of the proceedings of the college government as require their concurrence. OXFORD. The cap worn by the members of the University of Oxford, England, is called an _Oxford_ or _Oxford cap_. The same is worn at some American colleges on Exhibition and Commencement Days. In shape, it is square and flat, covered with black cloth; from the centre depends a tassel of black cord. It is further described in the following passage.