Joseph Blair's fate rests firmly in the hands of the University of Arizona.

Blair, a communication senior, was declared academically ineligible because of an Arizona Board of Regents policy that requires athletes to have a 2.0 grade-point average. At 6-foot-10 and 265 pounds, Blair was the Wildcat men's basketball team's starting center and leads the Wildcat men's basketball team in scoring and rebounding.

He practiced with the team for the first time in seven days yesterday, though he missed last night's game against the University of Southern California.

It appears his only recourse is to petition the university to have one of his grades changed to an incomplete, which would boost his GPA above the minimum level necessary to compete.

While Blair violated regents policy, it is up to the university to decide whether to grant the incomplete.

In a prepared statement faxed yesterday from his parents' home in Houston, Blair defended his position.

"I am a student who happens to also be an athlete. I am not, by any means, attempting to get preferential treatment in regard to academics; the process in which I am invovled is quite normal to any student, given the details of the situation.

"The procedure I am following has been folllowed by many students in the past. This is normallly a private matter. The option I am pursuing is one created to allow for fairness. And this is all I'm asking - that I be given the same fairness and considerat ion in this matter as any other student."

Blair will have to take the matter up with the university, said Norma Salas of the board of regents' public affairs office. "It is a process governed by the university and the student would have to initiate the process."

The university catalog states "The grade of I may be awarded only at the end of a semester, when all but a minor portion of the course work has been satisfactorily completed ... Students should make arrangements with the instructor to receive an incomplet e grade before the end of the semester."

However, if these guidelines are not followed, there is a general petition students may file after the completion of a semester to have a grade changed to incomplete. This petition must be filed first with the respective college dean, which is then forwar ded to the registrar's office for review by the general petition committee.

This avenue is much tougher.

"Most often these are denied because they should have been taken up with their instructors," said Sandra Knighton, office supervisor in the registrar's office.

The time frame of such decisions vary, but Brett Hansen, who handles the men's basketball team for the UA sports information department, said he expected a decision on Blair in the next couple of days, but said he did not know what body would make it.