The U.S. Air Force Academy’s superintendent told its Board of Visitors on Friday that the academy would miss its recruiting goals for black and Hispanic cadets for this fall’s entering class, and he put the blame in part on a Pentagon move to stop the military academies from waiving requirements for promising minority candidates.

The superintendent, Lt. Gen. John F. Regni, also criticized a plan to cut the number of students enrolled in a prep school that offers an 11-month program for potential cadets “who need an extra year of focus,” including many athletes and minority-group members.

According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, the secretary of the Air Force complained at the board’s meeting that members of Congress were not doing enough to encourage minority students to apply. “They are not influencing qualified candidates they know of to attend military academies,” said Michael Wynne, the Air Force secretary.

The newspaper said about 4 percent of the academy’s 4,000 cadets are black, about 6 percent are Hispanic, 2 percent are American Indian, and 9 percent are Asian-American or from Pacific Island backgrounds. —Lawrence Biemiller