The nuclei Sr 88 and Y 89 have been studied by observing the inelastic scattering of 65-and 70-MeV electrons through angles 70°-150°, with an over-all energy resolution of 200 keV. Strongly excited states were found in 4.16 MeV. The data were analyzed by a distorted-wave calculation to determine multipolarities and reduced nuclear radiative transition probabilities. The results show that the excited states in Y 89 cannot be described by a weak coupling of the 2pi/2 proton to core-excited states of Sr 88 . The sum of the B (122)'s of the low-lying quadrupole states in Y 89 is found to be about 30% of the B(E2) of the 1.84-MeV state of Sr 88 , and three strong octupole states are excited in Y 89 , where only two are expected from the weak-coupling model. No detailed information on the single-particle structure of the levels could be obtained at these momentum transfers.