I'm a minority..and started applying to Coast Guard Academy. As it turns out I was qualified and was urged to finish my application. However, the deciding point was that I want to be in the Army more than I want to be in the Coast Guard.
In general, the minorities I know that consider service academies don't even consider the Coast Guard (hell, even the non-minorities I know don't consider it). I didn't either (until I learned of their role in federal law enforcement--which is the only thing about the Coast Guard that interests me).
I would say (although I could be wrong) that in general the Coast Guard has a smaller amount of applicants than the other academies. That, by its very nature, means that less minorities (who are already a small amount of applicants at other academies) will apply.
I don't think they should place emphasis on getting minorities to go there. And they definitely shouldn't lower standards to allow more minorities to get in. I'm a minority, and was qualified enough to be the most qualified applicant in my district for a nomination to West Point, and also for one of my Senators. It isn't THAT hard to be qualified to or beyond the standard. It simply takes hard work and a motivation towards that particular goal.
There are a number of reasons why I chose not to go go to CGA. A huge part of it was that I don't know much about the Coast Guard. Second to that (and nearly as huge) is that the number of majors offered by the academy is extremely limited (8 according to the website).
I ultimately want/ed to major in Mathematical Logic (essentially philosophy), but neither USMA nor CGA offer that major, and CGA didn't have any majors that I'm interested in (at least West Point has an amazing foreign language department--which I'm also really interested in). Combine that with the fact that I might not even get to do what I want to do (so I was told) in the Coast Guard (Boarding Officer) and I was totally uninterested.
If they really want more minorities they should leave their process the same (the process was a lot simpler and easier than West Point's in my opinion) and create a minority admissions department that works like West Point's. They seek out qualified minorities and then tell them about the academy without being pushy or over-zealous (as some from the Coast Guard were).
Minorities that meet the standard are out there, it's just that many minorities don't even know about service academies (I didn't until a year before I started West Point).
They could probably try to get a more diverse selection of majors (although I see how that could be difficult with a limited budget) and offer information on what it's like to actually be in the Coast Guard.
If I want to know about the Coast Guard, my options are uscg.mil (which is difficult to navigate) and gocoastguard.com. If I go to gocoastguard.com and click on officer opportunities, I get a three sentence blurb that doesn't actually tell me anything about being an officer in the Coast Guard.
If I want to know about the Army, I can go to Goarmy.com and find lots of information on the jobs that officers do, etc. If I go to goarmy.com/officer I get a comprehensive website that thoroughly explains the various paths to becoming an officer. If I click on career and jobs at the top I get a somewhat detailed description of each job that an officer can hold in the Army.
If I want to know something about Coast Guard, then I basically have to find it out. If I asked the admissions people at West Point about something, they'll find someone who does it have them contact me.
So there are a number of factors involved, but I would say that part of it is advertising. I went from nearly enlisting in the Marine Corps reserve to applying and accepting an appointment to West Point.
I realize that budget is often an issue when it comes to advertising, but there just doesn't seem to be enough information about the Coast Guard floating around out there. Whereas there is plenty about the Army.
All those factors put together combined with my preference of being in the Army, and I was sold for WP.
Just my .02