The fact that the beeper works only on the pressing of the button does not imply that the ‘button works.’ People tend to think and are lead to believe that the button is meant to timely change the oncoming traffic to red allowing you to walk. The button, especially being on a heavily trafficked campus, can easily just act to initiate this audible system (*see below) but not decrease the time in which it takes to allow free crossing. Reading from various sources, the majority if not all of traffic crossing buttons are ineffective – some do nothing at all while others only work between late evening or night and early morning hours. It’s easy to imagine why traffic engineers would put heavily trafficked intersections – either by pedestrians or vehicles – or any intersection during daytime on a timed walk interval as allowing people to initiate signal change on a whim could severely hurt the flow of traffic.
Also, @ perchik – It doesn’t make sense why a visual impairment system would only work upon the pressing of the button. That could easily lead to a blind person missing the button or its purpose losing the safety feature. May want to check that again.
By the way – of related note – elevator door close buttons do nothing.