after graduating from lawrence high school on long island, robbins attended kenyon college in ohio in the fall of 1964 and majored in english. in his first year of college, robbins heard about dickie magidoff, a member of a far left political group called students for a democratic society, who was working in the cleveland area. in the summer of 1965, he joined magidoff and became involved in the what they called the "cleveland economic research and action project (cleveland erap)" which exposed him to a more sds members. he moved into the cleveland erap house and began helping raise capital to support their efforts. in the fall of 1965, the beginning of his sophomore year, robbins was eager to start up his own sds chapter at the kenyon college campus; he was the only official sds member during his time there. in the following 1966 spring semester, he was able to team up with the chaplain of the school and organize a student-faculty committee on the vietnam war. in an informal letter to dickie magidoff, robbins spoke of his successful strategy at the kenyon college campus and how he was able to get the support of "five faculty members and at least eighteen students to gather together and attempt to make a case for a critical approach to american foreign policy."