Responding to reports that the University of Colorado and other institutions have used sex to recruit athletes, members of Congress at a hearing on Thursday demanded that college presidents take control of their athletics programs, and suggested the National Collegiate Athletic Association consider requiring presidents to sign accountability statements.

The lawmakers set up the meeting, of a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee, after media scrutiny in recent weeks of three lawsuits against Colorado by women who say that they were raped by football players or recruits in 2001, and that the university used the promise of sex to help lure recruits. A total of seven women have come forward to say that they were raped by Colorado athletes since 1997. No charges have been filed, but their cases have spurred an examination of practices like taking recruits to strip clubs and colleges' use of female undergraduates as "hostesses" in recruiting athletes.

"Are the female students and other women in contact with athletics programs being protected?" asked Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky of Illinois, the senior Democrat on the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection. "I'm concerned about the culture in our top college athletics programs that fosters violence against women."

Elizabeth Hoffman, president of the University of Colorado System, testified about the stringent recruiting policies that her institution put in place last week. Among other requirements, prospective athletes will now have to be accompanied by their parents or a coach throughout their recruiting visit to a campus and will have to comply with an 11 p.m. curfew. The university also will prohibit student hosts from spending unsupervised time with recruits.

"Our vision is to become a national leader for a culture of personal respect and responsibility in our football and athletic programs and throughout the campus," Ms. Hoffman told the subcommittee. "We will not tolerate sexual harassment or exploitation in our athletic department or anywhere in our university."

Ms. Schakowsky chastised Ms. Hoffman for the decision late last month to place Gary Barnett, Colorado's football coach, on administrative leave, rather than immediately firing him after he made denigrating comments about a former placekicker, Katie Hnida. But Ms. Hoffman said after the hearing that she stood by her decision to delay final action regarding Mr. Barnett until investigations are complete.

Meanwhile, many college presidents on other campuses remain distant from recruiting practices in athletics departments, testified David Williams II, vice chancellor for student life and university affairs at Vanderbilt University. "Most university presidents and administrators really don't know what's going on over in athletics."

Others who testified at the hearing, including Rep. Tom Osborne, a Nebraska Republican and a former football coach at the University of Nebraska, said that the issues raised by the Colorado cases extend beyond athletics, to the partying on many college campuses and to the way American society in general views women. "You need to look at the whole culture and not just isolate the athletics department," Mr. Osborne said.

But the subcommittee's chairman, Rep. Clifford B. Stearns, a Florida Republican, suggested that college presidents should have to sign accountability statements for their athletics programs and recruiting practices. He compared such a step to requiring corporate executives to certify the financial statements of their companies, which Congress mandated in a 2002 federal law known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that came in response to the Enron scandal.

"Why hasn't the NCAA done something about this a long time ago?" Mr. Stearns asked S. David Berst, the association's vice president for Division I athletics. "Why haven't you been leading the charge?"

Mr. Berst responded that higher-education institutions in the past have insisted they could monitor those recruiting practices themselves. Given the recent developments, the NCAA is now stepping in, with a committee that will come up with guidelines by late April.

Rep. Diana L. DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, suggested that the House subcommittee revisit the issues at another hearing after the NCAA releases its guidelines, and the chairman, Mr. Stearns, agreed. "At this point, we're waiting to see what the NCAA does," Ms. DeGette said after the hearing.