I took Latin all through high school, and through the first couple of years of my undergrad degree in Classical Archaeology, and there was always some serious discussion on how this "c" should be pronounced. Our professors were primarily UK-trained, and used the hard "k" sound when pronouncing Cicero.
Just around 1968-70 we had an influx of American post Doc students, who were used to using a soft "ss" sound when pronoucing Cicero.
This caused consternation in the senior levels of the faculty, and so they instituted an active Latin Conversation Club, for grad students, undergrad Latin students and all faculty, particularly those post-docs who were in tenure-track positions.
Fundamentally, the grad students thought that if anyone hoped to get tenure, they would have to be seen to be participating in this Latin Conversation Club, and using the "proper" pronuciation. A sort of opportunity to "retrain" so that this "ss" sound was not in their spoken vocabulary.
