Yes, my wife worked for UC for 7 years, then quit shortly after we got married, and is now finishing her PhD at a UC school. She's hoping to go back to work there in the Fall, when we would be in a similar position to yourself.
The UC pension is pretty spectacular. 2.5% of your highest salary (averaged over 3 years) per year of service. If you've been there since before 2013, you can start taking it at 60. COLA'd up to 2% after retirement. The funds in the 403/457 plans have very low ERs. The rules on 457s are amazing.
I realized none of this until after she quit to get the PhD. If I had understood these facts, I'm not sure it would have made sense to go back to school.
I'd max out the 457 first, if you can. You can draw on that whenever you leave UC, with no penalty, no matter what your age.
Once you've maxed out the 457 and have the pension, plus SS, it's hard to imagine needing any additional retirement funds, unless there's concern that pensions and SS might not materialize in full. Any further tax-deferred amounts would likely be taxed at high marginal rates if withdrawn on top of the pensions. If you plan to FIRE, though, and your expenses are low (questionable if you're in CA) then you could likely convert to a Roth pipeline in between separating from UC and taking the pension.
At least, that's my thinking on the UC retirement system.