LD HOUSE. A name given in the German universities to a student
during his fifth term.

OPPONENCY. The opening of an academical disputation; the
proposition of objections to a tenet; an exercise for a
degree.--_Todd_.

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 _viva 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