The students who failed the course largely knew that this was the likely outcome before the final exam, so I had virtually no blowback from them. But from the D students, an avalanche of email cascaded down upon me as soon as the grades came out. Though D is a passing grade, the Engineering School will not give credit for the course unless the student obtains a C or higher. Thus, students who earn a D feel that although they did “good enough,” their effort was unrewarded and they resent that they have to repeat the course to get credit toward their degree.