While Evans says he's more optimistic about the economy, he cautions, "we're not out of the recession." 

Redd also says that while evidence points to a recovery, NACUBO has just started it latest study of how endowments are faring and it won't be completed until January. What's more, Redd says, endowments still have a ways to go to reach previous levels. "We're still about 20 percent lower than where we were in the middle of 2008," he says.

News of a possible recovery is good news since Historically Black Colleges and Universities have been especially hard hit. The nation's 103 HBCUs typically have smaller endowments and less of a financial cushion in hard times.

Spelman College in Atlanta, for instance, has been hard hit by the stock market's volatility. Although the college has a relatively strong financial position, it has taken steps to protect students loans. The downturn has prompted speculation that some  other HBCUs might have to close or merge to survive.

Meanwhile, college endowment officials are reconsidering their investment strategies after taking a beating in 2008-09. Redd says many learned the hard way that their schools might need immediate, protected funding for operations.

At Howard, for example, the university has reduced its exposure to volatile equities that have taken the biggest financial losses since the recession began in late 2007, Evans says. At the moment, the schools' endowment is invested 20 percent in U.S. equities, 14 percent in global stocks and 3 percent in emerging market equities.

"We've been reducing equities so we can get into investments that are more liquid so we can have cash readily in an emergency," Evans says.